Diogenes Laertius Quotes

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

  Diogenes Laertius

  Ignorance, Men, Play

  2 Copy quote

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

  Diogenes Laertius

  Greatest Love, Used, Great Value

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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.

  Diogenes Laertius

  Lying, Littles, Faces

  5 Copy quote

• 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 Laertius

  Law, Cities, Constitution

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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.

  Diogenes Laertius

  Self, Easy, Said

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

  Diogenes Laertius

  Iron, People, Rust

  3 Copy quote

• Aristippus said that a wise man's country was the world.

  Diogenes Laertius

  Wise, Country, Men

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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.

  Diogenes Laertius

  Hate, Men, Long

  4 Copy quote

• Time is the image of eternity.

  Diogenes Laertius

  Time, Eternity

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

  Diogenes Laertius

  Excess

  6 Copy quote

• Fortune is unstable, while our will is free.

  Diogenes Laertius

  Fortune, Unstable

  2 Copy quote

• 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.

  Diogenes Laertius

  Men, Grieving, Land

  3 Copy quote

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

  Diogenes Laertius

  Eye, Shade, Way

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• 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 Laertius

  Boys, Men, Practice

  3 Copy quote

• Heraclitus says that Pittacus, when he had got Alcæus into his power, released him, saying, "Forgiveness is better than revenge.

  Diogenes Laertius

  Revenge

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• That man does not possess his estate, but his estate possesses him.

  Diogenes Laertius

  Men, Doe, Estates

  2 Copy quote

• 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.

  Diogenes Laertius

  Men, Together, Sake

  3 Copy quote

• 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 Laertius

  Men, Too Late, Said

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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.

  Diogenes Laertius

  Thinking, Men, Mad

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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.

  Diogenes Laertius

  Differences, Life And Death, Doe

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• Pittacus said that half was more than the whole.

  Diogenes Laertius

  Half, Said, Whole

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• Courage, my boy! that is the complexion of virtue.

  Diogenes Laertius

  Boys, Virtue, Blushing

  25 Copy quote

• The sun too penetrates into privies, but is not polluted by them.

  Diogenes Laertius

  Sun, Penetrate

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

  Diogenes Laertius

  Men, Life Is, This Life

  3 Copy quote

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

  Diogenes Laertius

  Appearance, Deceitful, Being True

  0 Copy quote

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