Da dieser Satz weder so noch so ähnlich in der klassischen Literatur zu Sokrates zu finden ist, ist er ein typisches Falschzitat, das, wie so viele andere, im 20. Jahrhundert geprägt wurde.
- "By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher."
 |
| Pseudo-Socrates quote. |
- 1936: "A Pennsylvania clergyman was asked if men should marry. 'By all means,' counseled the witty parson, and added: 'If you get a good wife you will become very happy. If you get a bad one you will become a philosopher.' Emerson was happily married, perhaps too much so to become one of those gloomy philosophers who appear to carry the world about on their shoulders. Perhaps the chief function of a good wife is to keep her husband from taking himself and the world too seriously. Mrs. Emerson was a very sensible woman ..."
- 1942: "Socrates' marital difficulties are well known. Out of them he coined this sage advice: "By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you will become very happy; if you get a bad one you will become a philosopher— and and that is good for every man." (Link)
- 1977: "Aristotle gave the following advice to a young man in doubt about his impending marriage: 'If you marry a good woman, you'll get a good wife, If you marry a bad woman, you'll become a philosopher. So by all means marry.'" (Link)
Allerdings war Sokrates nach Xenophon der Meinung, eine schwierige Ehefrau könne einem Mann einiges lehren, was ihm später im Umgang mit anderen Menschen nützen könnte.
Sokrates (nach Xenophon)
- "Wenn du
dieser Meinung bist, Sokrates, sagte Antisthenes, wie kommt es, daß du
die Probe nicht an deiner Xanthippe machst, sondern dich mit einer Frau
behilfst, die unter allen lebenden, ja, meines Bedünkens, unter allen
die ehemals gelebt haben und künftig leben werden, die unerträglichste
ist.
Das geschieht aus der nämlichen Ursache, versetzte Sokrates, warum diejenigen, welche gute Reiter werden wollen, sich nicht die sanftesten und lenksamsten Pferde, sondern lieber wilde und unbändige anschaffen; denn sie denken, wenn sie diese im Zaum zu halten vermöchten, werde es ihnen ein leichtes sein, mit allen andern fertig zu werden. Gerade so machte ichs auch, da ich die Kunst mit den Menschen umzugehen zu meinem Hauptgeschäfte machen wollte: ich legte mir diese Frau zu, weil ich gewiß war, wenn ich sie ertragen könnte, würde ich mich leicht in alle andere Menschen finden können."
Xenophon: Gastmahl, Kapitel 4 (Link)
- "If that is your view, Socrates,” asked Antisthenes, “how does it come that you don't practise what you preach by yourself educating Xanthippe, but live with a wife who is the hardest to get along with of all the women there are—yes, or all that ever were, I suspect, or ever will be?”
- “Because,” he replied, “I
observe that men who wish to become expert horsemen do not get the most
docile horses but rather those that are high-mettled, believing that if
they can manage this kind, they will easily handle any other. My course
is similar. Mankind at large is what I wish to deal and associate with;
and so I have got her, well assured that if I can endure her, I shall
have no difficulty in my relations with all the rest of human kind.”
These words, in the judgment of the guests, did not go wide of the mark."
Xenophon: Symposium, 2, 10 (Link)
Quellen:
Newton Dillaway: "Prophet of America: Emerson and the Problems of Today", Little, Brown and company, Boston/ London: 1936, S. 98 (Link)
Edmund Fuller: 2500 Anecdotes for All Occasions, (EA 1942) Doubleday, 1961, S. 158 (Link)Xenophon: Xenofons Gastmahl - Kapitel 4, Übersetzt von Christoph Martin Wieland (Link)
Xenophon: Συμπόσιον 2, 10. Xenophontis opera omnia, vol. 2, 2nd ed. Oxford, Clarendon Press. 1921 (repr. 1971). (Link)
