Yet she is, being but a woman and a negress, a good soul, and thrifty, though requiring, like all lower animals, occasional chastisement.

I married her on philosophic grounds.

A wife was necessary to me for several reasons: but mindful that the philosopher should subjugate the material appetite, and rise above the swinish desires of the flesh, even when his nature requires him to satisfy them, I purposed to make pleasure as unpleasant as possible.

I had the choice of several cripples--their parents, of ancient Macedonian family like myself, were by no means adverse; but I required a housekeeper, with whose duties the want of an arm or a leg might have interfered.' 'Why did you not marry a scold ?' asked Philammon.
'Pertinently observed: and indeed the example of Socrates rose luminous more than once before my imagination.

But philosophic calm, my dear youth, and the peaceful contemplation of the ineffable?
I could not relinquish those luxuries.