Diogenes Laertius Quotes
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As some say, Solon was the author of the apophthegm, "Nothing in excess.
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Courage, my boy! that is the complexion of virtue.
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Xenophanes speaks thus:-And no man knows distinctly anything,And no man ever will.
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It used to be a common saying of Myson's that men ought not to seek for things in words, but for words in things; for that things are not made on account of words but that words are put together for the sake of things.
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Euripides says,-Who knows but that this life is really death,And whether death is not what men call life?
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Aristippus said that a wise man's country was the world.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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That man does not possess his estate, but his estate possesses him.
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Time is the image of eternity.
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Heraclitus says that Pittacus, when he had got Alcæus into his power, released him, saying, "Forgiveness is better than revenge.
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If appearances are deceitful, then they do not deserve any confidence when they assert what appears to them to be true.
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Plato affirmed that the soul was immortal and clothed in many bodies successively.
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Bion used to say that the way to the shades below was easy; he could go there with his eyes shut.
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Ignorance plays the chief part among men, and the multitude of words.
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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.
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When Thales was asked what was difficult, he said, To know one's self. And what was easy, To advise another.
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The sun too penetrates into privies, but is not polluted by them.
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Fortune is unstable, while our will is free.
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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.
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Pittacus said that half was more than the whole.
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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.
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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.
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Arcesilaus had a peculiar habit while conversing of using the expression, "My opinion is," and "So and so will not agree to this.
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One of the sophisms of Chrysippus was, "If you have not lost a thing, you have it.
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Diogenes lighted a candle in the daytime, and went round saying, "I am looking for a man.
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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.
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Diogenes would frequently praise those who were about to marry, and yet did not marry.
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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.
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