Diogenes Laërtius quotes - page 2

Anaximander used to assert that the primary cause of all things was the Infinite,-not defining exactly whether he meant air or water or anything else. (Diogenes Laërtius)
The Stoics also teach that God is unity, and that he is called Mind and Fate and Jupiter, and by many other names besides. View quote
Diogenes Laërtius
Diogenes would frequently praise those who were about to marry, and yet did not marry. View quote
Diogenes Laërtius
Asked from what country he came, he replied, "I am a citizen of the world." View quote
Diogenes Laërtius
A man once asked Diogenes what was the proper time for supper, and he made answer, "If you are a rich man, whenever you please; and if you are a poor man, whenever you can." View quote
Diogenes Laërtius
Heraclitus says that Pittacus, when he had got Alcæus into his power, released him, saying, "Forgiveness is better than revenge." View quote
Diogenes Laërtius
Anaxagoras said to a man who was grieving because he was dying in a foreign land, "The descent to Hades is the same from every place." View quote
Diogenes Laërtius
Euripides says,- Who knows but that this life is really death, And whether death is not what men call life? View quote
Diogenes Laërtius
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. View quote
Diogenes Laërtius
Anarcharsis, on learning that the sides of a ship were four fingers thick, said that "the passengers were just that distance from death." View quote
Diogenes Laërtius
Aristippus being asked what were the most necessary things for well-born boys to learn, said, "Those things which they will put in practice when they become men." (Diogenes Laërtius)
When Thales was asked what was difficult, he said, "To know one's self." And what was easy, "To advise another." View quote
Diogenes Laërtius
Arcesilaus had a peculiar habit while conversing of using the expression, "My opinion is," and "So and so will not agree to this." View quote
Diogenes Laërtius
Thales said there was no difference between life and death. "Why, then," said some one to him, "do not you die?" "Because," said he, "it does make no difference." View quote
Diogenes Laërtius
Diogenes lighted a candle in the daytime, and went round saying, "I am looking for a man." View quote
Diogenes Laërtius
Aristippus said that a wise man's country was the world. View quote
Diogenes Laërtius
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. View quote
Diogenes Laërtius
He used to say that other men lived to eat, but that he ate to live. View quote
Diogenes Laërtius
When asked what wine he liked to drink, he replied, "That which belongs to another." View quote
Diogenes Laërtius
Epicurus laid down the doctrine that pleasure was the chief good. View quote
Diogenes Laërtius
When a man reproached him for going into unclean places, he said, "The sun too penetrates into privies, but is not polluted by them." (Diogenes Laërtius)
He calls drunkenness an expression identical with ruin. View quote
Diogenes Laërtius
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." View quote
Diogenes Laërtius
When asked what he would take to let a man give him a blow on the head, he said, "A helmet." View quote
Diogenes Laërtius
When Zeno was asked what a friend was, he replied, "Another I." View quote
Diogenes Laërtius