Diogenes Laertius
Native of Laerte in Cilicia, was a biographer of ancient Greek philosophers.
Anarcharsis, on learning that the sides of a ship were four fingers thick, said that "the passengers were just that distance from death."
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.
Plato affirmed that the soul was immortal and clothed in many bodies successively.
It was a saying of his that education was an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.
Just step aside for me to enjoy the sunshine.
He used to teach that God is incorporeal, as Plato also asserted, and that his providence extends over all the heavenly bodies.
Often when he was looking on at auctions he would say, "How many things there are which I do not need!"
Xenophanes speaks thus:—
And no man knows distinctly anything,
And no man ever will.
When Zeno was asked what a friend was, he replied, "Another I."
It takes a wise man to discover a wise man.
On one occasion Aristotle was asked how much educated men were superior to those uneducated: "As much," said he, "as the living are to the dead."
When asked what wine he liked to drink, he replied, "That which belongs to another."
Arcesilaus had a peculiar habit while conversing of using the expression, "My opinion is," and "So and so will not agree to this."
Of a rich man who was niggardly he said, "That man does not own his estate, but his estate owns him."
Antisthenes used to say that envious people were devoured by their own disposition, just as iron is by rust.
Bion insisted on the principle that "The property of friends is common."
If appearances are deceitful, then they do not deserve any confidence when they assert what appears to them to be true.
The chief good is the suspension of the judgment, which tranquillity of mind follows like its shadow.
Anaxagoras said to a man who was grieving because he was dying in a foreign land, "The descent to Hades is the same from every place."
Bion used to say that the way to the shades below was easy; he could go there with his eyes shut.