Diogenes Laërtius Quotes
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The chief good is the suspension of the judgment, which tranquillity of mind follows like its shadow.
Pyrrho, 11. 
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More Diogenes Laërtius Quotes
Among what he called his precepts were such as these: Do not stir the fire with a sword. Do not sit down on a bushel. Do not devour thy heart.
Diogenes Laërtius— Pythagoras, 17.
He used to say that personal beauty was a better introduction than any letter; 18 but others say that it was Diogenes who gave this description of it, while Aristotle called beauty "the gift of God"; that Socrates called it "a short-lived tyranny"; Theophrastus , "a silent deceit"; Theocritus , "an ivory mischief"; Carneades , "a sovereignty which stood in need of no guards".
Diogenes Laërtius— The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 5: The Peripatetics, Aristotle, 9.
He said that men ought to remember those friends who were absent as well as those who were present.
Diogenes Laërtius— Thales, 9.
The apophthegm "Know thyself" is his.
Diogenes Laërtius— Thales, 13. Compare" "There are two sentences inscribed upon the Delphic oracle, hugely accommodated to the usages of man’s life: 'Know thyself', and 'Nothing too much'; and upon these all other precepts depend", Plutarch, Consolation to Apollonius.
Writers differ with respect to the apophthegms of the Seven Sages, attributing the same one to various authors.
Diogenes Laërtius— Thales, 14.
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 Laërtius— Bias, 5.
The saying, "Practice is everything," is Periander’s.
Diogenes Laërtius— Periander, 6.
Anarcharsis, on learning that the sides of a ship were four fingers thick, said that "the passengers were just that distance from death."
Diogenes Laërtius— Anarcharsis, 5.
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— Anarcharsis, 5.
The market is a place set apart where men may deceive each other.
Diogenes Laërtius— Anacharsis, 5.
It was a common saying of Myson that men ought not to investigate things from words, but words from things; for that things are not made for the sake of words, but words for things.
Diogenes Laërtius— Myson, 3.
Plato affirmed that the soul was immortal and clothed in many bodies successively.
Diogenes Laërtius— Plato, 40.
Time is the image of eternity.
Diogenes Laërtius— Plato, 41.
The road to Hades is the easiest to travel.
Diogenes Laërtius— Bion, 49.
Very late in life, when he was studying geometry, some one said to Lacydes, "Is it then a time for you to be learning now?" "If it is not," he replied, "when will it be?"
Diogenes Laërtius— Lacydes, 5.
Aristotle was once asked what those who tell lies gain by it. Said he, "That when they speak truth they are not believed."
Diogenes Laërtius— Aristotle, 9.
He used to define justice as "a virtue of the soul distributing that which each person deserved."
Diogenes Laërtius— Aristotle, 9.
Another of his sayings was, that education was the best viaticum of old age.
Diogenes Laërtius— Aristotle, 9.
The chief good he has defined to be the exercise of virtue in a perfect life.
Diogenes Laërtius— Aristotle, 13.
All things are in common among friends.
Diogenes Laërtius— Diogenes, 6.
"Be of good cheer," said Diogenes; "I see land."
Diogenes Laërtius— Diogenes, 6.
Plato having defined man to be a two-legged animal without feathers, Diogenes plucked a cock and brought it into the Academy, and said, "This is Plato’s man." On which account this addition was made to the definition,—"With broad flat nails."
Diogenes Laërtius— Diogenes, 6.
When Zeno was asked what a friend was, he replied, "Another I."
Diogenes Laërtius— Zeno, 19.
They say that the first inclination which an animal has is to protect itself.
Diogenes Laërtius— Zeno, 52.
One ought to seek out virtue for its own sake, without being influenced by fear or hope, or by any external influence. Moreover, that in that does happiness consist.
Diogenes Laërtius— Zeno, 53.
In the time of Pythagoras that proverbial phrase Ipse dixit was introduced into ordinary life.
Diogenes Laërtius— Pythagoras, 25.
Xenophanes was the first person who asserted... that the soul is a spirit.
Diogenes Laërtius— Xenophanes, 3.
Epicurus laid down the doctrine that pleasure was the chief good.
Diogenes Laërtius— Epicurus, 6.
He alludes to the appearance of a face in the orb of the moon.
Diogenes Laërtius— Epicurus, 25.
