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Quotes from The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers — Diogenes Laërtius

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← All quotes by Diogenes Laërtius

102 quotes

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

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (200)

The saying, "Practice is everything," is Periander’s.

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (200)

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.

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (200)

"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."

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (200)

Nothing can be produced out of nothing.

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (200)

Time is the image of eternity.

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (200)

Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in search thereof when he is grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul. And to say that the season for studying philosophy has not yet come, or that it is past and gone, is like saying that the season for happiness is not yet or that it is now no more.

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (200)

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

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (200)

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."

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (200)

All things are in common among friends.

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (200)

Wealth is the sinews of affairs.

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (200)

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 Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (200)

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.

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (200)

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.

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (200)

The apophthegm "Know thyself" is his.

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (200)

Xenophanes was the first person who asserted... that the soul is a spirit.

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (200)

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."

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (200)

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.

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (200)

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

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (200)

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."

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (200)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Diogenes Laërtius (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.