Diogenes of Babylon Quotes
Diogenes of Babylon, also called Diogenes the Stoic, was a Greek philosopher, the head of the Stoic school after Chrysippus, and one of the three philosophers, with the Academic Carneades and the Peripatetic Critolaus, who took part in the famous philosophical embassy to Rome in 156-155 BC. His writings on logic, rhetoric, music, and ethics, preserved only in fragments and citations, helped to fix the orthodox Stoic doctrine for the next century and to introduce Stoicism to Roman intellectual life. The quotes below are attributed to Diogenes of Babylon, organized by topic.
Diogenes of Babylon on Knowledge
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Attributed to Diogenes of Babylon:
“The first task of the philosopher is to learn the names of things rightly.”
Diogenes of Babylon on Mind
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Attributed to Diogenes of Babylon:
“Music does not merely entertain; it forms the soul into a likeness of itself.”
Diogenes of Babylon on Truth
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Attributed to Diogenes of Babylon:
“Rhetoric, severed from philosophy, is flattery; joined to philosophy, it is persuasion.”
Diogenes of Babylon on Virtue
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Attributed to Diogenes of Babylon:
“The good is not in things outside us, but in the rational use we make of them.”
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Attributed to Diogenes of Babylon:
“He who has assimilated the doctrine of the Stoa is at home in any city.”