Gospel of Aristippus 5 · Third Witness: The Wave of Sovereignty, and Living in the Hour
This book is written at ease. Whoever reads it and does not laugh once has not read this book.
5.1I left this one out.
5.2The reason is not creditable: the wine was good that day. I wrote down two of the Teacher’s jokes and forgot to write down his most important sentence.
5.3It came back to me twenty years later.
5.4Someone asked: what is the greatest law?
5.5The Teacher pushed the cup across and said: "Drink with someone."
5.6They laughed, thinking he was joking again.
5.7He said: "I am serious. Eating the best thing alone is not enjoyment. It is storage."
5.8"Pleasure is the only thing that increases by division. You have all studied geometry — work it out."
5.9Someone asked: and if the man does not deserve it?
5.10The Teacher said: "The cup does not know whether he deserves it."
5.11I laughed that day, and did not write it down.
5.12I understand now that he was not talking about wine.
5.13A man who never shares the best of what he has is not a sovereign. He is a warehouse.
5.14A warehouse is possessed by nothing either. A warehouse is only somewhere nobody has ever been.