On noticing that Epigenes, one of his companions, was in poor condition, for a young man, he said: “You look as if you need exercise,1 Epigenes.”
“Well,” he replied, “I'm not an athlete, Socrates.”
“Just as much as the competitors entered for Olympia,” he retorted. “Or do you count the life and death struggle with their enemies, upon which, it may be, the Athenians will enter, but a small thing?