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.
Pittacus said that half was more than the whole.
Diogenes Laërtius— Pittacus, 2.
Heraclitus says that Pittacus, when he had got Alcæus into his power, released him, saying, "Forgiveness is better than revenge."
Diogenes Laërtius— Pittacus, 3.
He said that there was one only good, namely, knowledge; and one only evil, namely, ignorance.
Diogenes Laërtius— Socrates, 14.
He declared that he knew nothing, except the fact of his ignorance.
Diogenes Laërtius— Socrates, 16.
Being asked whether it was better to marry or not, he replied, "Whichever you do, you will repent it."
Diogenes Laërtius— Socrates, 16.
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 Laërtius— Anaxagoras, 6.
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.
Arcesilaus had a peculiar habit while conversing of using the expression, "My opinion is," and "So and so will not agree to this."
Diogenes Laërtius— Arcesilaus, 12.
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.
It was a saying of his that education was an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.
Diogenes Laërtius— Aristotle, 9.
He was once asked what a friend is, and his answer was, "One soul abiding in two bodies."
Diogenes Laërtius— Aristotle, 9.
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.
When asked what learning was the most necessary, he said, "Not to unlearn what you have learned."
Diogenes Laërtius— Antisthenes, 4.
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.
When asked what wine he liked to drink, he replied, "That which belongs to another."
Diogenes Laërtius— Diogenes, 6.
Asked from what country he came, he replied, "I am a citizen of the world."
Diogenes Laërtius— Diogenes, 6.
Apollodorus says, "If any one were to take away from the books of Chrysippus all the passages which he quotes from other authors, his paper would be left empty."
Diogenes Laërtius— Chrysippus, 3.
One of the sophisms of Chrysippus was, "If you have not lost a thing, you have it."
Diogenes Laërtius— Chrysippus, 11.
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.
Democritus says, "But we know nothing really; for truth lies deep down."
Diogenes Laërtius— Pyrrho, 8.
Euripides says,—Who knows but that this life is really death,And whether death is not what men call life?
Diogenes Laërtius— Pyrrho, 8.
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 Laërtius— Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers, Book I. Myson, Chapter III
Sacrifice to the Graces.
Diogenes Laërtius— Book IV, 6. Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, letter (March 9, 1748).
