It is not learning that makes people good, but practice.

οὐ γὰρ τὰ μαθήματα τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ποιεῖ ἀγαθούς, ἀλλὰ τὰ ἔργα.

Gaius Musonius Rufus

Philosophers

Gaius Musonius Rufus

Roman Stoic philosopher (c. 30-101 AD), teacher of Epictetus, the man three emperors banished and could not silence. He wrote nothing, taught in the street, and insisted on equal philosophical education for women.

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Source: ストバイオス『精華集』所伝 第六講話「訓練について」Verified

Gaius Musonius Rufus's Other Quotes

Exile is not an evil.

If you accomplish something good with hard work, the labour passes quickly, but the good endures; if you do something shameful in pursuit of pleasure, the pleasure passes quickly, but the shame endures.

Philosophy is nothing other than the pursuit of nobility and goodness.

Related Quotes

It is no good, pain; bothersome you may be, but you will never persuade me you are evil.

-- Posidonius

The knowledge and contemplation of nature is somehow defective and incomplete unless action follows.

-- Panaetius

Philosophy is nothing other than the pursuit of nobility and goodness.

-- Gaius Musonius Rufus

It is the task of one rightly oriented toward others to draw the circles in toward the centre.

-- Hierocles

Follow the god.

-- Cato the Younger

Cato, while he lived, lived in such a way that he lacked nothing — so long as he was free to die.

-- Cato the Younger