Our life according to Pythagoras

Our life, said Pythagoras, is like the vast throng assembled for the Olympic Games: some use their bodies there to win fame from the contests; others come to trade, to make a profit; still others - and they are by no means the worst - seek no other gain than to be spectators, seeing how everything is done and why; they watch how other men live so that they can judge and regulate their own lives.

Michel de Montaigne - Complete Essays (I, 26)