Literary Barbarism
“For I do not think, as some of our contemporaries urge, that everyone ought to atticize in language, even if they happen to be doctors, philosophers, geometers, musicians, or lawyers, or none of these, but generally wealthy people or merely people of means. On the contrary—I don’t think it is a good thing to blame or censure anyone for solecising. It’s better to solecise and barbarize in words than in life.”
οὐ γὰρ δὴ τοῦτ' ἀξιοῦμεν ἡμεῖς, ὅπερ ἔνιοι τῶν νῦν κελεύουσιν, ἅπαντας ἀττικίζειν τῇ φωνῇ, κἂν ἰατροὶ τυγχάνωσιν ὄντες ἢ φιλόσοφοι καὶ γεωμετρικοὶ καὶ μουσικοὶ καὶ νομικοὶ κἂν μηδὲν τούτων ἀλλ' ἁπλῶς ἤτοι πλουτοῦντές τινες ἢ μόνον εὔποροι· τοὐναντίον γὰρ ἀπαξιῶ μηδενὶ μέμφεσθαι τῶν σολοικιζόντων τῇ φωνῇ μηδ' ἐπιτιμᾶν· ἄμεινον γάρ ἐστι τῇ φωνῇ μᾶλλον ἢ τῷ βίῳ σολοικίζειν τε καὶ βαρβαρίζειν.