Ancilla to the Pre-Socratic Philosophers. A complete translation of the Fragments in Diels, Fragmente der Vorsokratiker by Kathleen Freeman. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press [1948] This text is in the public domain in the US because its copyright was not renewed in a timely fashion as required by law at the time. The chapters are numbered as in the Fifth Edition of Diels, Fragmente der Vorsokratiker. The numbers in brackets are those of the Fourth Edition.
Anaxarchus of Abdêra was in his prime about 340 B.C., and was active throughout the reign of Alexander.
He wrote a book On Monarchy.
1. Much learning can help much, but also can greatly harm him who has it. It helps the clever man, but harms him who readily utters every word in any company. One must know the measure of the right time, for this is the boundary of wisdom. Those who recite a saying outside the right time, even if their saying is wise, are reproached with folly, because they do not mix intelligence with wisdom.
2. (From the work 'On Monarchy'): It is hard to collect money, but harder still to keep it safely.