Then show me your progress in these things. If I were talking to an athlete, I'd say, "Show me your shoulders." He might say, "Here are my dumbbells." You and your dumbbells — whatever. I'd reply, "I want to see what the dumbbells have done for you." So when you tell me, "Look at this treatise on impulses and see how well I've studied it," I say: "Fool, I don't care about that. I care about how you handle your desires and fears, your goals and plans. Do you handle them according to nature or not? If you do, prove it to me, and I'll say you're making progress. If not, get lost. Don't just explain books — write your own books if you want. What good will it do you? Don't you know the whole book only costs five cents? Is the person explaining it worth more than five cents? Never look for the real thing in one place and expect to find progress toward it somewhere else."
Do you then show me your improvement in these things? If I were talking to an athlete, I should say, Show me your shoulders; and then he might say, Here are my Halteres. You and your Halteres look to that. I should reply, I wish to see the effect of the Halteres. So, when you say: Take the treatise on the active powers ([Greek: hormea]), and see how I have studied it, I reply: Slave, I am not inquiring about this, but how you exercise pursuit and avoidance, desire and aversion, how you design and purpose and prepare yourself, whether conformably to nature or not. If conformably, give me evidence of it, and I will say that you are making progress; but if not conformably, be gone, and not only expound your books, but write such books yourself; and what will you gain by it? Do you not know that the whole book costs only five denarii? Does then the expounder seem to be worth more than five denarii? Never then look for the matter itself in one place, and progress towards it in another.