Choose Rather To Be Strong Of

Attributed to Pythagoras via Stobaeus's Anthology (5th century AD), which preserved excerpts from hundreds of ancient authors, many otherwise lost. The priority of inner strength over physical prowess was central to Pythagorean teaching: members of the school practised ascetic disciplines of diet, silence, and rigorous daily self-examination, treating the cultivation of the soul as a higher pursuit than the cultivation of the body. No writings by Pythagoras survive directly.