This article tackles a significant theme that surfaces occasionally in Stoicism: the claim that “the sage will speak direct words” (euthurrhemonesei). It explores euthurrhemosune as a Cynic and Laconizing topos in Stoicism, probably going back to Zeno himself, but developed by Diogenes of Babylon as something distinctively wholesome—linguistically and ethically—in Stoic style of expression, and then attacked from a Platonic and Academic stance by Cicero, at a time when some among the Stoics themselves began distancing themselves from their Cynic heritage, as notably Panaetius. Finally, the connection between euthurrhemosune and parrhesia on the one hand, suntomia and brachylogia on the other is also examined from an ethical and stylistic point of view.

This article tackles a significant theme that surfaces occasionally in Stoicism: the claim that “the sage will speak direct words” (<i>cuthurrhemonesei</i>). It explores <i>cnthurrhemosune</i> as a Cynic and Laconizing topos in Stoicism, probably going back to Zeno himself, but developed by Diogenes of Babylon as something distinctively wholesome—linguistically and ethically—in Stoic style of expression, and then attacked from a Platonic and Academic stance by Cicero, at a time when some among the Stoics themselves began distancing themselves from their Cynic heritage, as notably Panaetius. Finally, the connection between <i>euthurrhemosune</i> and <i>par- rhesia</i> on the one hand, <i>suntomiu</i> and <i>brachylogia</i> on the other is also examined from an ethical and stylistic point of view.