Diogenes Laërtius Quotes

Old age is the harbor of all ills.

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

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

Alcæus mentions Aristodemus in these lines:—
’T is money makes the man; and he who ’s none
Is counted neither good nor honourable.

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.

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."

Very late in life, when he was studying geometry, some one said to Lacydes, "Is it then a time for you to be learning now?" "If it is not," he replied, "when will it be?"

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

Among what he called his precepts were such as these: Do not stir the fire with a sword. Do not sit down on a bushel. Do not devour thy heart.

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

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

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

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

He alludes to the appearance of a face in the orb of the moon.

Time is the image of eternity.