Diogenes Laërtius: Use

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

“Antisthenes used to say that envious people were devoured by their own disposition, just as iron is by rust.”

Diogenes Laërtius

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

“He used to teach that God is incorporeal, as Plato also asserted, and that his providence extends over all the heavenly bodies.”

Diogenes Laërtius

Aristotle, 13.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 5: The Peripatetics

“He used to define justice as "a virtue of the soul distributing that which each person deserved."”

Diogenes Laërtius

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

“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 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

“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.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 8: Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans

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

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

“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 Laërtius

Menedemus, 3.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 6: The Cynics

“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

“Solon used to say that speech was the image of actions;… that laws were like cobwebs,—for that if any trifling or powerless thing fell into them, they held it fast; while if it were something weightier, it broke through them and was off.”

Diogenes Laërtius

Solon, 10.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 1: The Seven Sages

“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

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

“Anaximander used to assert that the primary cause of all things was the Infinite,—not defining exactly whether he meant air or water or anything else.”

Diogenes Laërtius

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

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