(Βίας), of Priene in Ionia, one of the Seven Sages of Greece, flourished about 550 years before Christ. He was accustomed to say, that it was a sickness of the mind to wish for impossible things. Being asked, when his native city was besieged, why he alone had retired from the place without carrying anything with him, he replied, that he carried his all with him; meaning, that knowledge and virtue were the only blessings peculiarly his own, since they could not be taken from him. He lived to a very advanced age, and expired immediately after pleading successfully the cause of one of his friends. Diogenes Laertius and others have recorded many of his sayings.

the inclination or bent of the mind to a particular object. It is also applied to the weight inserted in the side of a bowl, which causes it to incline, when rolling; to that particular side.