Chapter 12 Volume Two, Chapter Five

On the different evaluations that different friends should have.People should examine themselves to determine how they should be judged by their friends. I once heard another talk of his, and I took it to be an exhortation to examine oneself and see how much one was worth to one's friends.He noticed that one of his friends had a friend who was in poverty, but this person ignored him, so he asked Antisthenes in front of this person who ignored his friend's needs and several others: "Antisthenes Stennis, do friends have a fixed value, like slaves? For one friend may be worth two munas, and another not half a muna, and another may be worth five munas, and another Worth ten munas. Nekas, son of Nikeratus, is said to have paid a full talent of silver for a man who ran the silver mines for him. Let us therefore inquire, whether it is not as slaves have Like definite value, friends also have definite value.

"Indeed," replied Antisthenes, "at least as far as I am concerned, I would rather have someone as my friend than half a muna; another man I might value more than ten munas; and another man I might sacrifice all my money and all my powers to win him as my friend'. "If this is the case," said Socrates, "it is worthwhile for each of us to examine what he is worth to his friends. And each of us should try to make himself useful to his friends." As much value as possible, lest friends desert him. For I have often heard it said that his friends deserted him, and others that he thought he was his friend. I don't want him. So I think about it all this way, whether just as a man is willing to get rid of a useless slave no matter how much money he can get, so people are just as easy to get rid of a slave when he can get more value. A friend who is worthless is thrown away. I have never seen a useful slave sold, and a good friend is not thrown away."