Diogenes Laërtius quotes

Diogenes Laërtius was an ancient Greek biographer and historian, best known for his work "Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers." His writings are one of the main sources of information about the lives and teachings of Greek philosophers. He preserved many anecdotes and fragments that might otherwise have been lost. Here are 107 of his quotes:

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.

Diogenes Laërtius

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.

Diogenes Laërtius

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

Diogenes Laërtius

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

Diogenes Laërtius

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

Diogenes Laërtius

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

Diogenes Laërtius

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.

Diogenes Laërtius

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.

Diogenes Laërtius

Time is the image of eternity.

Diogenes Laërtius

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

Diogenes Laërtius

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

Diogenes Laërtius

Fortune is unstable, while our will is free.

Diogenes Laërtius

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

Diogenes Laërtius

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.

Diogenes Laërtius

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

Diogenes Laërtius

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

Diogenes Laërtius

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 Laërtius

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

Diogenes Laërtius

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.

Diogenes Laërtius

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

Diogenes Laërtius

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

Diogenes Laërtius

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.

Diogenes Laërtius