The voices / 104 fragments

Diogenes Laertius

Dates not recorded

Listed in the author section of Bartlett’s ninth-edition anthology, in the linked 1905 printing. Dates reflect that historical edition and may differ from modern scholarship.

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Historical source references

Diogenes Laertius
Thales
Solon
Chilo
Pittacus
Bias
Cleobulus
Periander
Anarcharsis
Myson
Epimenides
Pherecydes
Anaximander
Anaxagoras
Socrates
Aristippus
Plato
Xenocrates
Arcesilaus
Bion
Lacydes
Aristotle
Theophrastus
Antisthenes
Diogenes
Menedemus
Zeno
Chrysippus
Pythagoras
Xenophanes

Archive entries

01c. 200 AD

Alcæus mentions Aristodemus in these lines:—

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02c. 200 AD

'T is money makes the man; and he who 's none Is counted neither good nor honourable.

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03c. 200 AD

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."

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04c. 200 AD

When Thales was asked what was difficult, he said, "To know one's self." And what was easy, "To advise another."

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05c. 200 AD

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

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06c. 200 AD

The apophthegm "Know thyself" is his.

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07c. 200 AD

Writers differ with respect to the apophthegms of the Seven Sages, attributing the same one to various authors.

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08c. 200 AD

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.

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09c. 200 AD

Solon gave the following advice: "Consider your honour, as a gentleman, of more weight than an oath. Never tell a lie. Pay attention to matters of importance."

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10c. 200 AD

As some say, Solon was the author of the apophthegm, "Nothing in excess."

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11c. 200 AD

Chilo advised, "not to speak evil of the dead."

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12c. 200 AD

Pittacus said that half was more than the whole.

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13c. 200 AD

Heraclitus says that Pittacus, when he had got Alcæus into his power, released him, saying, "Forgiveness is better than revenge."

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14c. 200 AD

One of his sayings was, "Even the gods cannot strive against necessity."

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15c. 200 AD

Another was, "Watch your opportunity."

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16c. 200 AD

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.

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17c. 200 AD

Ignorance plays the chief part among men, and the multitude of words; but opportunity will prevail.

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18c. 200 AD

The saying, "Practice is everything," is Periander's.

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19c. 200 AD

Anarcharsis, on learning that the sides of a ship were four fingers thick, said that "the passengers were just that distance from death."

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20c. 200 AD

He used to say that it was better to have one friend of great value than many friends who were good for nothing.

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21c. 200 AD

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.

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22c. 200 AD

Epimenides was sent by his father into the field to look for a sheep, turned out of the road at mid-day and lay down in a certain cave and fell asleep, and slept there fifty-seven years; and after that, when awake, he went on looking for the sheep, thinking that he had been taking a short nap.

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23c. 200 AD

There are many marvellous stories told of Pherecydes. For it is said that he was walking along the seashore at Samos, and that seeing a ship sailing by with a fair wind, he said that it would soon sink; and presently it sank before his eyes. At another time he was drinking some water which had been drawn up out of a well, and he foretold that within three days there would be an earthquake; and there was one.

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24c. 200 AD

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.

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Diogenes Laertius

Archive entries

Read further

Meditations

The Republic

The Prophet