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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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."

That the gods superintend all the affairs of men, and that there are such beings as dæmons.

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

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.

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

Like sending owls to Athens, as the proverb goes.

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."

Epimenides was sent by his father into the field to look for a sheep, turned out of the road at mid-day and lay down in a certain cave and fell asleep, and slept there fifty-seven years; and after that, when awake, he went on looking for the sheep, thinking that he had been taking a short nap.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Time is the image of eternity.

Diogenes Laërtius Quotes

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