Single Idea 3018

[catalogued under 23. Ethics / A. Egoism / 3. Cyrenaic School]

Full Idea

When blamed for buying expensive food he asked "Would you have bought it for just three obols?" When the person said yes, he said,"Then it is not that I am fond of pleasure, but that you are fond of money".

Gist of Idea

People who object to extravagant pleasures just love money

Source

report of Aristippus the elder (fragments/reports [c.395 BCE]) by Diogenes Laertius - Lives of Eminent Philosophers 02.7.4

Book Reference

Diogenes Laertius: 'Diogenes Laertius', ed/tr. Yonge,C.D. [Henry G. Bohn 1853], p.85