Miscellanies 2.20.118

But the wretch did not notice that he was deceiving himself by the pleasure-loving art. Aristippus of Cyrene, clearly, held this opinion too, the sophist who boasted of the truth. Reproached, at any rate, for constantly consorting with the Corinthian courtesan, he said, “I have Lais, and I am not had by her.” Such too are those who claim to follow Nicolaus, bringing forward a saying of the man, by a distortion, that one must “abuse the flesh.” But the noble man showed that one must cut back pleasures and desires and by this discipline wither the impulses and assaults of the flesh. They, however, pouring themselves into pleasure like goats, as though insulting the body, live in luxury, not knowing that the body wears out, being by nature fluid, while their soul is buried in the mire of vice, since they follow the teaching of pleasure itself, not of an apostolic man. For in what do they differ from Sardanapalus, whose life the epitaph shows: “I have what I ate and my wanton deeds and the delights I had with love; but those many prosperous things are left behind. For I too am dust, who ruled great Nineveh.” For in general the passion of pleasure is not necessary, but a consequence of certain natural needs: hunger, thirst, cold, marriage.