Better to hide ignorance
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ἀμαθίην γὰρ ἄμεινον κρύπτειν ἔργον δὲ ἐν ἀνέσει καὶ παρ᾽ οἶνον
For it is better to hide ignorance — but hard work to do so at one's ease and over wine.
Preserved by Plutarch (On Listening to Lectures / De audiendo 43D), and echoed elsewhere in his essays on self-control. He pairs it with the counsel that a man should master his tongue.
A worldly, almost sardonic maxim whose bite is in the second half. Yes, <em>amathiē</em> — ignorance — is better kept hidden than displayed; that much is common prudence. But concealing it is <em>ergon</em>, real work, and hardest exactly 'in relaxation and over wine,' when the guard drops and the tongue loosens. Drink and ease are truth serums; they expose what sober effort hides.
For a thinker who prizes the waking, gathered mind and scorns those who 'live as if they had a private understanding' (B2), the saying has an edge. Wine slackens the soul — elsewhere a drunk man is led stumbling by a boy, 'having his soul wet' (B117). The moist, relaxed soul spills its ignorance; the dry soul (B118) keeps its counsel. Self-command is a labour that never fully rests.
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