Diogenes Laertius Quotes

Courage, my boy! that is the complexion of virtue.

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

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 customs is the unwritten law.

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.

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.

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.

There are many marvellous stories told of Pherecydes. For it is said that he was walking along the seashore at Samos, and that seeing a ship sailing by with a fair wind, he said that it would soon sink; and presently it sank before his eyes. At another time he was drinking some water which had been drawn up out of a well, and he foretold that within three days there would be an earthquake; and there was one.

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

He used to say that it was better to have one friend of great value than many friends who were good for nothing.

Sacrifice to the Graces.

Antisthenes used to say that envious people were devoured by their own disposition, just as iron is by rust.

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.

It used to be a common saying of Myson's that men ought not to seek for things in words, but for words in things; for that things are not made on account of words but that words are put together for the sake of things.

Socrates said, "Those who want fewest things are nearest to the gods.

Euripides says,-Who knows but that this life is really death,And whether death is not what men call life?

When asked what learning was the most necessary, he said, “Not to unlearn what you have learned!”

Ignorance plays the chief part among men, and the multitude of words.

Time is the image of eternity.

Fortune is unstable, while our will is free.

That man does not possess his estate, but his estate possesses him.

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.

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.

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

The sun too penetrates into privies, but is not polluted by them.

One of the sayings of Diogenes was that most men were within a finger's breadth of being mad; for if a man walked with his middle finger pointing out, folks would think him mad, but not so if it were his forefinger.

Diogenes lighted a candle in the daytime, and went round saying, "I am looking for a man.

When Thales was asked what was difficult, he said, To know one's self. And what was easy, To advise another.

Aristippus said that a wise man's country was the world.

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

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.

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.

One of the sophisms of Chrysippus was, "If you have not lost a thing, you have it.

If appearances are deceitful, then they do not deserve any confidence when they assert what appears to them to be true.

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

Whichever you do, you will repent it.

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.

Pittacus said that half was more than the whole.

Anarcharsis, on learning that the sides of a ship were four fingers thick, said that "the passengers were just that distance from death.

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.

The mountains too, at a distance, appear airy masses and smooth, but seen near at hand they are rough.

Xenophanes speaks thus:-And no man knows distinctly anything,And no man ever will.

Anaximander used to assert that the primary cause of all things was the Infinite,-not defining exactly whether he meant air or water or anything else.

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

Plato affirmed that the soul was immortal and clothed in many bodies successively.

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.

The Stoics also teach that God is unity, and that he is called Mind and Fate and Jupiter, and by many other names besides.

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