Diogenes Laërtius: Quotes about men

Diogenes Laërtius was biographer of ancient Greek philosophers. Explore interesting quotes on men.
Diogenes Laërtius: 214 quotes12 likes

“The market is a place set apart where men may deceive each other.”

Diogenes Laërtius

Anacharsis, 5.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 2: Socrates, his predecessors and followers

“He used to say that other men lived to eat, but that he ate to live.”

Diogenes Laërtius

Socrates, 16.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 2: Socrates, his predecessors and followers

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

Diogenes Laërtius

Cleobulus, 4.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 1: The Seven Sages

“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.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 4: The Academy

“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 Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 1: The Seven Sages

“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 Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 9: Uncategorized philosophers and Skeptics

“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.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 6: The Cynics

“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.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 2: Socrates, his predecessors and followers

“That the gods superintend all the affairs of men, and that there are such beings as dæmons.”

Diogenes Laërtius

Plato, 42.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 3: Plato

“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.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 2: Socrates, his predecessors and followers

“When he was praised by some wicked men, he said, "I am sadly afraid that I must have done some wicked thing."”

Diogenes Laërtius

Antisthenes, 4.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 6: The Cynics

“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.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 2: Socrates, his predecessors and followers

“He said that men ought to remember those friends who were absent as well as those who were present.”

Diogenes Laërtius

Thales, 9.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 1: The Seven Sages

“On one occasion Aristotle was asked how much educated men were superior to those uneducated: "As much," said he, "as the living are to the dead."”

Diogenes Laërtius

Aristotle, 9.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 5: The Peripatetics