When you're on horseback riding across a field, do you worry about facing someone on foot? Do you get anxious about something you've practiced while they haven't? "Yes, but this person I'm going to speak to has the power to kill me." Then tell the truth, you miserable person. Stop bragging. Don't claim to be a philosopher. Don't refuse to admit who your real teachers are. As long as you offer up this weak spot in your body, you'll follow anyone stronger than you. Socrates practiced speaking — the same Socrates who talked that way to tyrants, to judges, who talked that way in his prison cell. Diogenes practiced speaking too — the same Diogenes who spoke that way to Alexander, to pirates, to the man who bought him as a slave. These men felt confident because they had practiced what mattered. But you? Go back to your own little affairs and never leave them. Go sit in a corner and weave together syllogisms and present them to someone else. You don't have what it takes to rule a state.
When then you are mounted on a horse and go into a plain, are you anxious at being matched against a man who is on foot, and anxious in a matter in which you are practised, and he is not? Yes, but that person (to whom I am going to speak) has power to kill me. Speak the truth, then, unhappy man, and do not brag, nor claim to be a philosopher, nor refuse to acknowledge your masters, but so long as you present this handle in your body, follow every man who is stronger than yourself. Socrates used to practice speaking, he who talked as he did to the tyrants, to the dicasts (judges), he who talked in his prison. Diogenes had practised speaking, he who spoke as he did to Alexander, to the pirates, to the person who bought him. These men were confident in the things which they practised. But do you walk off to your own affairs and never leave them: go and sit in a corner, and weave syllogisms, and propose them to another. There is not in you the man who can rule a state.