Quotation
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“He used to say that we have two ears and one mouth, so that we might hear more and talk less.”
Zeno of Citium · Stoicism · Ancient · anecdote about a 3rd-century BCE philosopher, written later
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is a piece of practical advice attached to the founder: the face is built so that listening outruns speech. A competing reading treats it as a schoolroom proverb assigned to Zeno because every founder collects maxims, not as a thesis of Stoic epistemology. The report is Lives 7.23, among anecdotes about his teaching manner. It is not the formula that the end is to live in agreement with nature, which is a separate card from 7.87. Nature, in that formula, is a technical word. This sentence is about a habit in conversation. Both can be true of a teacher. Only one of them is even a candidate for a doctrinal fragment, and even that one is doxography. The badge stays Questionable because the wording is the biographer's.
Did Zeno of Citium really say this?
The library’s label is Questionable. Diogenes Laertius 7.23, in the life of Zeno of Citium, the founder of the Stoa. His books are lost. This is a reported saying, not a sentence from the Republic, the book of his that does not survive.
Where it comes from
Diogenes Laertius, Lives 7.23, reporting Zeno of Citium
Approximate date: anecdote about a 3rd-century BCE philosopher, written later.
How to use it
A meeting in which the person with the most senior title also does the most talking has inverted the proportion he is said to have liked. The saying will not design the agenda. It will make the proportion visible. It is not a reason to stay silent when you have the fact the room lacks.
A mindset reading
A maxim about listening is not the Stoic system. The habit is to enjoy the proportion and still ask, when the conversation turns to nature or virtue, which sentence is the doctrine and which is the anecdote. This one is the anecdote.
Understand the philosophy
Lives 7.23 collects remarks on Zeno's character as a teacher. The key proportion is two ears and one mouth. The ethical end, agreement with nature, is reported at 7.87 and is already in this library. His books, including the Republic, are lost, so a fifth doctrinal sentence was not invented to replace them. The other cards are the reports that can be placed.
- knowledge
- virtue
FAQ
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is a piece of practical advice attached to the founder: the face is built so that listening outruns speech. A competing reading treats it as a schoolroom proverb assigned to Zeno because every founder collects maxims, not as a thesis of Stoic epistemology. The report is Lives 7.23, among anecdotes about his teaching manner. It is not the formula that the end is to live in agreement with nature, which is a separate card from 7.87. Nature, in that formula, is a technical word. This sentence is about a habit in conversation. Both can be true of a teacher. Only one of them is even a candidate for a doctrinal fragment, and even that one is doxography. The badge stays Questionable because the wording is the biographer's.
Did Zeno of Citium really say this?
Questionable. Diogenes Laertius 7.23, in the life of Zeno of Citium, the founder of the Stoa. His books are lost. This is a reported saying, not a sentence from the Republic, the book of his that does not survive.
Which work is it in?
Diogenes Laertius, Lives 7.23, reporting Zeno of Citium Approximate date: anecdote about a 3rd-century BCE philosopher, written later.