Diogenes Laërtius Quotes

97 Sourced Quotes

One ought to seek out virtue for its own sake, without being influenced by fear or hope, or by any external influence. Moreover, that in that does happiness consist.

Diogenes Laërtius
Diogenes would frequently praise those who were about to marry, and yet did not marry.

Diogenes Laërtius
When he was praised by some wicked men, he said, "I am sadly afraid that I must have done some wicked thing."

Diogenes Laërtius
Heraclitus says that Pittacus, when he had got Alcæus into his power, released him, saying, "Forgiveness is better than revenge."

Diogenes Laërtius
Once Diogenes, who was washing vegetables, ridiculed him as he passed by, and said, "If you had learnt to eat these vegetables, you would not have been a slave in the palace of a tyrant." But Aristippus replied, "And you, if you had known how to behave among men, would not have been washing vegetables."

Diogenes Laërtius
Bias used to say that men ought to calculate life both as if they were fated to live a long and a short time, and that they ought to love one another as if at a future time they would come to hate one another; for that most men were bad.

Diogenes Laërtius
When Zeno was asked what a friend was, he replied, "Another I."

Diogenes Laërtius
The chief good is the suspension of the judgment, which tranquillity of mind follows like its shadow.

Diogenes Laërtius
Another of his sayings was, that education was the best viaticum of old age.

Diogenes Laërtius
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 Laërtius
One of his sayings was, "Even the gods cannot strive against necessity."

Diogenes Laërtius
Of what use is a philosopher who doesn't hurt anybody's feelings?

Diogenes Laërtius
Apollodorus says, "If any one were to take away from the books of Chrysippus all the passages which he quotes from other authors, his paper would be left empty."

Diogenes Laërtius
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."

Diogenes Laërtius
It was a saying of his that education was an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.

Diogenes Laërtius
Arcesilaus had a peculiar habit while conversing of using the expression, "My opinion is," and "So and so will not agree to this."

Diogenes Laërtius
The chief good he has defined to be the exercise of virtue in a perfect life.

Diogenes Laërtius
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.

Diogenes Laërtius
It was a favourite expression of Theophrastus that time was the most valuable thing that a man could spend.

Diogenes Laërtius
He used to say that other men lived to eat, but that he ate to live.

Diogenes Laërtius
Often when he was looking on at auctions he would say, "How many things there are which I do not need!"

Diogenes Laërtius
Plato having defined man to be a two-legged animal without feathers, Diogenes plucked a cock and brought it into the Academy, and said, "This is Plato's man." On which account this addition was made to the definition,—"With broad flat nails."

Diogenes Laërtius
Plato was continually saying to Xenocrates, "Sacrifice to the Graces."

Diogenes Laërtius
He declared that he knew nothing, except the fact of his ignorance.

Diogenes Laërtius
He used to teach that God is incorporeal, as Plato also asserted, and that his providence extends over all the heavenly bodies.

Diogenes Laërtius
As some say, Solon was the author of the apophthegm, "Nothing in excess."

Diogenes Laërtius
The saying, "Practice is everything," is Periander's.

Diogenes Laërtius
Asked from what country he came, he replied, "I am a citizen of the world."

Diogenes Laërtius
Once he saw a youth blushing, and addressed him, "Courage, my boy! that is the complexion of virtue."

Diogenes Laërtius
Bion used to say that the way to the shades below was easy; he could go there with his eyes shut.

Diogenes Laërtius