Diogenes Laertius Quotes and Sayings - Page 1
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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 -
“Ignorance plays the chief part among men, and the multitude of words.”
-- Diogenes Laertius -
“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 -
“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 -
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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.”
-- Diogenes Laertius -
“Antisthenes used to say that envious people were devoured by their own disposition, just as iron is by rust.”
-- Diogenes Laertius -
“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 -
“The sun too penetrates into privies, but is not polluted by them.”
-- Diogenes Laertius -
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“As some say, Solon was the author of the apophthegm, "Nothing in excess.”
-- Diogenes Laertius -
“Aristippus said that a wise man's country was the world.”
-- Diogenes Laertius -
“Fortune is unstable, while our will is free.”
-- Diogenes Laertius -
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“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 -
“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 -
“Bion used to say that the way to the shades below was easy; he could go there with his eyes shut.”
-- Diogenes Laertius -
“Heraclitus says that Pittacus, when he had got Alcæus into his power, released him, saying, "Forgiveness is better than revenge.”
-- Diogenes Laertius -
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“That man does not possess his estate, but his estate possesses him.”
-- Diogenes Laertius -
“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 -
“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 -
“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 -
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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 -
“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 Laertius -
“Plato was continually saying to Xenocrates, "Sacrifice to the Graces.”
-- Diogenes Laertius -
“Pittacus said that half was more than the whole.”
-- Diogenes Laertius -
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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.”
-- Diogenes Laertius -
“Courage, my boy! that is the complexion of virtue.”
-- Diogenes Laertius -
“If appearances are deceitful, then they do not deserve any confidence when they assert what appears to them to be true.”
-- Diogenes Laertius -
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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 -
“Whichever you do, you will repent it.”
-- Diogenes Laertius
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