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.
Alcæus mentions Aristodemus in these lines:—’T is money makes the man; and he who ’s noneIs counted neither good nor honourable.
Diogenes Laërtius— Thales, 8.
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 Laërtius— Thales, 9.
When Thales was asked what was difficult, he said, "To know one’s self." And what was easy, "To advise another."
Diogenes Laërtius— Thales, 9.
Heraclitus says that Pittacus, when he had got Alcæus into his power, released him, saying, "Forgiveness is better than revenge."
Diogenes Laërtius— Pittacus, 3.
One of his sayings was, "Even the gods cannot strive against necessity."
Diogenes Laërtius— Pittacus, 4.
Another was, "Watch your opportunity."
Diogenes Laërtius— Pittacus, 7.
Being asked whether it was better to marry or not, he replied, "Whichever you do, you will repent it."
Diogenes Laërtius— Socrates, 16.
He used to say that other men lived to eat, but that he ate to live.
Diogenes Laërtius— Socrates, 16.
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— Aristippus, 4.
Once Diogenes, who was washing vegetables, ridiculed him as he passed by, and said, "If you had learnt to eat these vegetables, you would not have been a slave in the palace of a tyrant." But Aristippus replied, "And you, if you had known how to behave among men, would not have been washing vegetables."
Diogenes Laërtius— Aristippus, 4.
Aristippus said that a wise man’s country was the world.
Diogenes Laërtius— Aristippus, 13.
Bion used to say that the way to the shades below was easy; he could go there with his eyes shut.
Diogenes Laërtius— Bion, 3.
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 Laërtius— Bion, 3.
Asked what he gained from philosophy, he answered, "To do without being commanded what others do from fear of the laws."
Diogenes Laërtius— Aristotle, 9.
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."
Diogenes Laërtius— Aristotle, 9.
Diogenes would frequently praise those who were about to marry, and yet did not marry.
Diogenes Laërtius— Diogenes, 4 (note that this is Diogenes of Sinope).
"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 Laërtius— Diogenes, 6.
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 Laërtius— Diogenes, 6.
Asked from what country he came, he replied, "I am a citizen of the world."
Diogenes Laërtius— Diogenes, 6.
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— Diogenes, 6.
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.
Diogenes Laërtius— Pythagoras, 4.
He calls drunkenness an expression identical with ruin.
Diogenes Laërtius— Pythagoras, 6.
Euripides says,—Who knows but that this life is really death,And whether death is not what men call life?
Diogenes Laërtius— Pyrrho, 8.
The mountains, too, at a distance appear airy masses and smooth, but seen near at hand, they are rough.
Diogenes Laërtius— Pyrrho, 9.
If appearances are deceitful, then they do not deserve any confidence when they assert what appears to them to be true.
Diogenes Laërtius— Pyrrho, 11.
Sacrifice to the Graces.
Diogenes Laërtius— Book IV, 6. Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, letter (March 9, 1748).
He calls drunkenness an expression identical with ruin.
Diogenes Laërtius— Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers, Pythagoras, VI.
