1001Philosophers

Aetius the Doxographer Quotes on Knowledge

Aetius, sometimes called Aetius the Doxographer, was a Greek philosophical author of the first or second century AD, the compiler of a now-lost handbook of philosophical opinions, the Placita Philosophorum, that lay behind the surviving compilations of Pseudo-Plutarch and Stobaeus. This page collects quotes attributed to Aetius the Doxographer on the topic of knowledge, drawn from across the philosopher's works.

Quotes

  • Attributed to Aetius the Doxographer:

    “Where the philosophers disagree, the doxographer must record what each has said.”

  • Attributed to Aetius the Doxographer:

    “An honest catalog of opinions is the precondition of any philosophical judgment.”

  • Attributed to Aetius the Doxographer:

    “What is preserved by patient compilation outlives what is lost by careless argument.”

  • Attributed to Aetius the Doxographer:

    “The historian of opinion is no rival of the philosopher; he is his quiet ally.”

  • Attributed to Aetius the Doxographer:

    “We owe to the doxographers most of what we still know of the schools.”