Diogenes Laërtius Quotes

3rd-century Roman biographer of Greek philosophers

Diogenes Laërtius (fl. c. 3rd century AD), was a biographer of ancient Greek philosophers. His Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, in ten books, is still extant and is an important source of information on the development of Greek philosophy. The period when he lived is not exactly known, but it is supposed to have been during the reigns of Septimius Severus and Caracalla.

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Native Name: Διογένης ὁ Λαέρτιος

Alternative Names: Diogenes Laertius

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

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.

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

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

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

Epicurus laid down the doctrine that pleasure was the chief good.

Solon used to say that speech was the image of actions;... that laws were like cobwebs,—for that if any trifling or powerless thing fell into them, they held it fast; while if it were something weightier, it broke through them and was off.

The road to Hades is the easiest to travel.

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

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

They say that the first inclination which an animal has is to protect itself.

Of a rich man who was niggardly he said, "That man does not own his estate, but his estate owns him."

Be of good cheer," said Diogenes; "I see land.

He has not acquired a fortune; the fortune has acquired him.

One ought to seek out virtue for its own sake, without being influenced by fear or hope, or by any external influence.

Diogenes Laërtius Quotes

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