Diogenes Laërtius quotes
Diogenes Laërtius: Biographer of the Greek philosophers. The library holds 108 quotes by Diogenes Laërtius, drawn from Diogenes, Aristotle, Socrates and other works. The 60 below are the most quoted; search the library in the maker for the rest.
Often about: life, faith, friendship, death, time, truth
The best-known Diogenes Laërtius quotes
-
To arrive at perfection, a man should have very sincere friends or inveterate enemies; because he would be made sensible of his good or ill conduct, either by the censures of the one or the admonitions of the other.
-
A man should live with his superiors as he does with his fire: not too near, lest he burn; nor too far off, lest he freeze.
-
When Zeno was asked what a friend was, he replied, “Another I.”
Zeno. xix -
Epicurus laid down the doctrine that pleasure was the chief good.
Epicurus. vi -
When asked what learning was the most necessary, he said, “Not to unlearn what you have learned.”
Antisthenes. iv -
On one occasion Aristotle was asked how much educated men were superior to those uneducated: “As much,” said he, “as the living are to the dead.”
Aristotle. xi -
Anarcharsis, on learning that the sides of a ship were four fingers thick, said that “the passengers were just that distance from death.”
Anarcharsis. v -
Pythagoras used to say that he had received as a gift from Mercury the perpetual transmigration of his soul, so that it was constantly transmigrating and passing into all sorts of plants or animals.
Pythagoras. iv -
Once he saw a youth blushing, and addressed him, “Courage, my boy! that is the complexion of virtue.”
Diogenes. vi -
Aristotle was once asked what those who tell lies gain by it. Said he, “That when they speak truth they are not believed.”
Aristotle. xi -
Of a rich man who was niggardly he said, “That man does not own his estate, but his estate owns him.”
Bion. iii -
It was a common saying of Myson that men ought not to investigate things from words, but words from things; for that things are not made for the sake of words, but words for things.
Myson. iii -
It was a saying of his that education was an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.
Aristotle. xi -
One of his sayings was, “Even the gods cannot strive against necessity.”
Pittacus. iv -
He used to teach that God is incorporeal, as Plato also asserted, and that his providence extends over all the heavenly bodies.
Aristotle. xiii -
That the gods superintend all the affairs of men, and that there are such beings as daemons.
Plato. xlii -
Thales said there was no difference between life and death. “Why, then,” said some one to him, “do not you die?” “Because,” said he, “it does make no difference.”
Thales. ix -
In youth it is too early, in old age it is too late to marry.
-
Wise kings have generally wise councillors, as he must be a wise man himself who is capable of distinguishing one.
-
The Stoics also teach that God is unity, and that he is called Mind and Fate and Jupiter, and by many other names besides.
Zeno. lxviii -
As some say, Solon was the author of the apophthegm, “Nothing in excess.”
Solon. xvi -
Once when Bion was at sea in the company of some wicked men, he fell into the hands of pirates; and when the rest said, “We are undone if we are known,”—“But I,” said he, “am undone if we are not known.”
Bion. iii -
Being asked whether it was better to marry or not, he replied, “Whichever you do, you will repent it.”
Socrates. xvi -
Aristophanes turns Socrates into ridicule in his comedies, as making the worse appear the better reason.
Socrates. v -
The chief good he has defined to be the exercise of virtue in a perfect life.
Aristotle. xiii -
A man once asked Diogenes what was the proper time for supper, and he made answer, “If you are a rich man, whenever you please; and if you are a poor man, whenever you can.”
Diogenes. vi -
When asked what wine he liked to drink, he replied, “That which belongs to another.”
Diogenes. vi -
Heraclitus says that Pittacus, when he had got Alcaeus into his power, released him, saying, “Forgiveness is better than revenge.”
Pittacus. iii -
Solon gave the following advice: “Consider your honour, as a gentleman, of more weight than an oath. Never tell a lie. Pay attention to matters of importance.”
Solon. xii -
Plato was continually saying to Xenocrates, “Sacrifice to the Graces.”
Xenocrates. iii -
Ignorance plays the chief part among men, and the multitude of words; but opportunity will prevail.
Cleobulus. iv -
Very late in life, when he was studying geometry, some one said to Lacydes, “Is it then a time for you to be learning now?” “If it is not,” he replied, “when will it be?”
Lacydes. v -
Bion insisted on the principle that “The property of friends is common.”
Bion. ix -
He said that there was one only good, namely, knowledge; and one only evil, namely, ignorance.
Socrates. xiv -
Anaxagoras said to a man who was grieving because he was dying in a foreign land, “The descent to Hades is the same from every place.”
Anaxagoras. vi -
Writers differ with respect to the apophthegms of the Seven Sages, attributing the same one to various authors.
Thales. xiv -
When he was praised by some wicked men, he said, “I am sadly afraid that I must have done some wicked thing.”
Antisthenes. iv -
Diogenes said once to a person who was showing him a dial, “It is a very useful thing to save a man from being too late for supper.”
Menedemus. iii -
Democritus says, “But we know nothing really; for truth lies deep down.”
Pyrrho. viii -
Asked what he gained from philosophy, he answered, “To do without being commanded what others do from fear of the laws.”
Aristotle. xi -
If appearances are deceitful, then they do not deserve any confidence when they assert what appears to them to be true.
Pyrrho. xi -
But Chrysippus, Posidonius, Zeno, and Boëthus say, that all things are produced by fate. And fate is a connected cause of existing things, or the reason according to which the world is regulated.
Zeno. lxxiv -
When asked what he would take to let a man give him a blow on the head, he said, “A helmet.”
Diogenes. vi -
Another of his sayings was, that education was the best viaticum of old age.
Aristotle. xi -
Aristippus being asked what were the most necessary things for well-born boys to learn, said, “Those things which they will put in practice when they become men.”
Aristippus. iv -
Arcesilaus had a peculiar habit while conversing of using the expression, “My opinion is,” and “So and so will not agree to this.”
Arcesilaus. xii -
Diogenes lighted a candle in the daytime, and went round saying, “I am looking for a man.”
Diogenes. vi -
The question was put to him, what hope is; and his answer was, “The dream of a waking man.”
Aristotle. xi -
Xenophanes was the first person who asserted… that the soul is a spirit.
Xenophanes. iii -
“Bury me on my face,” said Diogenes; and when he was asked why, he replied, “Because in a little while everything will be turned upside down.”
Diogenes. vi -
He declared that he knew nothing, except the fact of his ignorance.
Socrates. xvi -
Bion used to say that the way to the shades below was easy; he could go there with his eyes shut.
Bion. iii -
There is a written and an unwritten law. The one by which we regulate our constitutions in our cities is the written law; that which arises from custom is the unwritten law.
Plato. li -
When a man reproached him for going into unclean places, he said, “The sun too penetrates into privies, but is not polluted by them.”
Diogenes. vi -
He used to say that it was better to have one friend of great value than many friends who were good for nothing.
Anarcharsis. v -
Asked from what country he came, he replied, “I am a citizen of the world.”
Diogenes. vi -
Protagoras asserted that there were two sides to every question, exactly opposite to each other.
Protagoras. iii -
He alludes to the appearance of a face in the orb of the moon.
Epicurus. xxv -
One of the sophisms of Chrysippus was, “If you have not lost a thing, you have it.”
Chrysippus. xi -
The question was once put to him, how we ought to behave to our friends; and the answer he gave was, “As we should wish our friends to behave to us.”
Aristotle. xi
Where these quotes come from
- Diogenes (13 quotes)
- Aristotle (12 quotes)
- Socrates (7 quotes)
- Zeno (6 quotes)
- Thales (6 quotes)
- Pyrrho (6 quotes)
- Plato (5 quotes)
- Pythagoras (4 quotes)
Every quote comes from a public-domain edition. How the library was made .