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[5] Then Croesus, wishing to make Anacharsis appear ridiculous, inquired of him, "And are the beasts, then, also the wisest?" And Anacharsis agreed that they were, adding this explanation: "The peculiar characteristic of wisdom consists in showing a greater respect to the truth which nature imparts than to the ordinance of the law." And Croesus laughed at him and the answers he had given, as those of one coming from Scythia and from a bestial manner of living.

Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.

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