Cleanthes Quote on Work: The Water That Carried the School

Quote

"The work is the tuition of the wisdom: I drew water by night to study by day, and the labor that carried the body carried the school — the work is the price, and the wisdom is the purchase." — Cleanthes, as reported in Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, Book VII

Author

Cleanthes (c. 330–230 BCE) was the second head of the Stoic school, the pupil and successor of Zeno of Citium. The tradition records his poverty and his industry — the water carrier who became the head of the school.

Source

The quotation is preserved in Diogenes Laertius's Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, Book VII, in the account of Cleanthes's life and work. It is a report of the tradition's portrait rather than a verbatim quotation.

Context

The account of Cleanthes's work belongs to the Stoic discipline and the tradition's portrait of the school's second head. He was poor, and he supported himself by manual labor — drawing water at night, working as a gardener and a wrestler — to pay for his studies by day. The tradition records that the Athenians admired his industry, and the portrait of the water carrier who became the head of the school is the portrait of the Stoic discipline: the work is the price, the wisdom is the purchase, and the labor is the tuition.

Meaning

The quotation states the Stoic account of work with complete clarity. "The work is the tuition of the wisdom" — the identification: the work is the tuition — the price of the wisdom is paid in the labor, and the labor is the education. "I drew water by night to study by day" — the practice: the double labor — the night for the water, the day for the study — the work that made the study possible. "The labor that carried the body carried the school" — the fruit: the labor carried the body — the physical support of the life — and it carried the school — the persistence of Cleanthes carried the school through the generation after the founder's death. "The work is the price, and the wisdom is the purchase" — the exchange: the work is the price, the wisdom is the purchase, and the exchange is the discipline. The quotation is the portrait of the Stoic discipline of work, and it grounds the Stoic wisdom tradition's account of the labor and the learning.

Related Wisdom

The quotation belongs to the Stoic philosophy of discipline and the portrait of the labor. Its account of the water carrier connects to the tradition's teaching on the work as the tuition and to the wider wisdom tradition's account of the price of the learning. The portrait of Cleanthes is among the most moving in the Stoic wisdom tradition.