Contempt for opinions of others
idea · 2 works · 2 mentions · 4 anchored passages
abuse · calumnies · denunciation · extolled · fame · praise · praise and blame · reputation
in the texts
Panathenaicus
The passage's concern with how cities should be praised or blamed, and how readers should distinguish proof from calumny.
on the contrary, they will appreciate the praise given to their own city, which is based on proof, while they will dismiss with contempt the abuse, which is uttered at random with no regard to the facts, and is offensive only in the words employed;
for you have extolled both these cities well and fittingly—Athens, according to the acclaim of the majority, which no man of note has ever disdained, while all men in their craving to obtain it are ready to submit themselves to any hazard whatsoever;
But after they had divided the territory with the Argives and the Messenians and for themselves had settled in Sparta—at this juncture, as you say, they were so proud that although they then numbered no more than two thousand men they considered themselves unworthy to live unless they could make themselves masters of all the cities in the Peloponnesus.
Meditations
The theme of disregarding the praise, blame, and opinions of others as irrelevant to virtue.
will it make any difference to you if what is just and good is blamed by another?
Socrates used to call the opinions of the many "bogeys," scarecrows for children.
What anyone will say or think of him, or do against him, he does not even take into his mind, being content with these two things: