"By associating with wise people you will become wise yourself"
About this Quote
Self-improvement, Menander suggests, is less a heroic solo project than a matter of social gravity. “By associating with wise people you will become wise yourself” reads like clean moral advice, but its engine is more observational than inspirational: we’re porous. Our judgments, habits, and even our sense of what counts as “reasonable” get calibrated by the company we keep.
Menander was a poet and playwright of New Comedy, a world of domestic plots, recognizable types, and social maneuvering rather than epic battles. In that setting, wisdom isn’t thunderbolts from the gods; it’s practical intelligence: how to speak, when to hold back, what to value, whom to trust. The line carries a quietly theatrical subtext: watch who’s onstage with you, because character is contagious. This is advice for a city where reputation and networks matter, where a young man’s future can be made or broken by mentors, patrons, and friends.
The phrasing also smuggles in a gentle warning. If wisdom can be acquired by proximity, so can folly. Menander doesn’t preach about discipline or study; he points to environment as the real curriculum. It’s a democratic claim (you can learn by contact, not birthright) and a conservative one (your circle will shape you, so choose carefully).
What makes it work is its refusal to romanticize “wisdom” as private genius. It’s social, imitative, and learned in conversation - a reminder that virtue is often less about willpower than about whom you let normalize your life.
Menander was a poet and playwright of New Comedy, a world of domestic plots, recognizable types, and social maneuvering rather than epic battles. In that setting, wisdom isn’t thunderbolts from the gods; it’s practical intelligence: how to speak, when to hold back, what to value, whom to trust. The line carries a quietly theatrical subtext: watch who’s onstage with you, because character is contagious. This is advice for a city where reputation and networks matter, where a young man’s future can be made or broken by mentors, patrons, and friends.
The phrasing also smuggles in a gentle warning. If wisdom can be acquired by proximity, so can folly. Menander doesn’t preach about discipline or study; he points to environment as the real curriculum. It’s a democratic claim (you can learn by contact, not birthright) and a conservative one (your circle will shape you, so choose carefully).
What makes it work is its refusal to romanticize “wisdom” as private genius. It’s social, imitative, and learned in conversation - a reminder that virtue is often less about willpower than about whom you let normalize your life.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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