Diogenes Laertius Quotes on Knowledge
Diogenes Laertius (3rd c. AD) was not an original epistemologist but the principal ancient doxographer, whose Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers preserves the bulk of what survives of the doctrines of dozens of pre-Socratic, Hellenistic, and early imperial schools. The work transmits the epistemological positions of Democritus, the Cyrenaics, the Stoics, Epicurus, the Pyrrhonists, and the Academic Skeptics through summaries that, while uneven in quality, remain the only continuous narrative source for the period. For most of the schools whose primary works are lost, our knowledge of their theory of knowledge ultimately depends on Diogenes.
Quotes
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Attributed to Diogenes Laertius:
“It is no small thing to record the lives of those who shaped the lives of all who came after.”
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Attributed to Diogenes Laertius:
“The wise man knows that what is reported of the wise is itself an exercise in philosophy.”
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Attributed to Diogenes Laertius:
“Lives are to be remembered for the doctrines they vindicate, and for the doctrines that vindicate the lives.”
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Attributed to Diogenes Laertius:
“I have collected what I could; the rest will be the work of those who come after.”
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Attributed to Diogenes Laertius:
“Without biography, doctrine has no body; without doctrine, biography has no soul.”
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“When Thales was asked what was difficult, he said, "To know one’s self." And what was easy, "To advise another.”
Thales , 9. -
“The apophthegm "Know thyself" is his.”
Thales , 13. Compare" "There are two sentences inscribed upon the Delphic oracle, hugely accommodated to the usages of man’s life: 'Know thyself', and 'Nothing too much'; and upon these all other precepts depend", Plutarch , Consolation to Apollonius . -
“Thales , 13. Compare" "There are two sentences inscribed upon the Delphic oracle, hugely accommodated to the usages of man’s life: 'Know thyself', and 'Nothing too much'; and upon these all other precepts depend", Plutarch , Consolation to Apollonius .”
The apophthegm "Know thyself" is his. -
“Writers differ with respect to the apophthegms of the Seven Sages, attributing the same one to various authors.”
Thales , 14. -
“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.”
Solon , 10. -
“As some say, Solon was the author of the apophthegm, "Nothing in excess.”
Solon , 16.