Vitae philosophorum

Diogenes Laertius

Diogenes Laertius. Hicks, R. D., editor. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1925.

To the query, What is a friend? his reply was, A single soul dwelling in two bodies. Mankind, he used to say, were divided into those who were as thrifty as if they would live for ever, and those who were as extravagant as if they were going to die the next day. When some one inquired why we spend much time with the beautiful, That, he said, is a blind man’s question. When asked what advantage he had ever gained from philosophy, he replied, This, that I do without being ordered what some are constrained to do by their fear of the law.[*](Cicero ascribed a similar reply to Xenocrates: ut id sua sponte facerent, quod cogerentur facere legibus (Cic. De rep. i. § 3).) The question being put, how can students make progress, he replied, By pressing hard on those in front and not waiting for those behind. To the chatterbox who poured out a flood of talk upon him and then inquired, Have I bored you to death with my chatter? he replied, No, indeed; for I was not attending to you.

When some one accused him of having given a subscription to a dishonest man—for the story is also

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told in this form [*](Cf. supra, § 17.)—It was not the man, said he, that I assisted, but humanity. To the question how we should behave to friends, he answered, As we should wish them to behave to us. Justice he defined as a virtue of soul which distributes according to merit. Education he declared to be the best provision for old age. Favorinus in the second book of his Memorabilia mentions as one of his habitual sayings that He who has friends can have no true friend. Further, this is found in the seventh book of the Ethics.[*](E.E. vii. 12, 1245 b 20; N.E. ix. 10. 6, 1171 a 15-17.) These then are the sayings attributed to him.

His writings are very numerous and, considering the man’s all-round excellence, I deemed it incumbent on me to catalogue them[*](This is one of three catalogues which we have of the Aristotelian writings. Hesychius furnishes one, appended to his Life of Aristotle; see V. Rose’s edition of the Fragments, p. 9 seq. Another by Ptolemy the philosopher, of which the Greek original has perished, is preserved in Arabic; see V. Rose, Frag. p. 18 seq.):

  • Of Justice, four books.
  • On Poets, three books.
  • On Philosophy, three books.
  • Of the Statesman, two books.
  • On Rhetoric, or Grylus, one book.
  • Nerinthus, one book.
  • The Sophist, one book.
  • Menexenus, one book.
  • Concerning Love, one book.
  • Symposium, one book.
  • Of Wealth, one book.
  • Exhortation to Philosophy, one book.
  • Of the Soul, one book.
  • Of Prayer, one book.
  • On Noble Birth, one book.
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  • On Pleasure, one book.
  • Alexander, or a Plea for Colonies, one book.
  • On Kingship, one book.
  • On Education, one book.
  • Of the Good, three books.
  • Extracts from Plato’s Laws, three books.
  • Extracts from the Republic, two books.
  • Of Household Management, one book.
  • Of Friendship, one book.
  • On being or having been affected, one book.
  • Of Sciences, one book.
  • On Controversial Questions, two books.
  • Solutions of Controversial Questions, four books.
  • Sophistical Divisions, four books.
  • On Contraries, one book.
  • On Genera and Species, one book.
  • On Essential Attributes, one book.

  • Three note - books on Arguments for Purposes of Refutation.
  • Propositions concerning Virtue, two books.
  • Objections, one book.
  • On the Various Meanings of Terms or Expressions where a Determinant is added, one book.
  • Of Passions or of Anger, one book.
  • Five books of Ethics.
  • On Elements, three books.
  • Of Science, one book.
  • Of Logical Principle, one book.
  • Logical Divisions, seventeen books.
  • Concerning Division, one book.
  • On Dialectical Questioning and Answering, two books.
  • Of Motion, one book.
  • Propositions, one book.
  • Controversial Propositions, one book.
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  • Syllogisms, one book.
  • Eight books of Prior Analytics.
  • Two books of Greater Posterior Analytics.
  • Of Problems, one book.
  • Eight books of Methodics.
  • Of the Greater Good, one book.
  • On the Idea, one book.
  • Definitions prefixed to the Topics, seven books.
  • Two books of Syllogisms.

  • Concerning Syllogism with Definitions, one book.
  • Of the Desirable and the Contingent, one book.
  • Preface to Commonplaces, one book.
  • Two books of Topics criticizing the Definitions.
  • Affections or Qualities, one book.
  • Concerning Logical Division, one book.
  • Concerning Mathematics, one book.
  • Definitions, thirteen books.
  • Two books of Refutations.
  • Of Pleasure, one book.
  • Propositions, one book.
  • On the Voluntary, one book.
  • On the Beautiful, one book.
  • Theses for Refutation, twenty-five books.
  • Theses concerning Love, four books.
  • Theses concerning Friendship, two books.
  • Theses concerning the Soul, one book.
  • Politics, two books.
  • Eight books of a course of lectures on Politics like that of Theophrastus.
  • Of Just Actions, two books.
  • A Collection of Arts [that is, Handbooks], two books.
  • Two books of the Art of Rhetoric.
  • Art, a Handbook, one book.
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  • Another Collection of Handbooks, two books.
  • Concerning Method, one book.
  • Compendium of the Art of Theodectes, one book.
  • A Treatise on the Art of Poetry, two books.
  • Rhetorical Enthymemes, one book.
  • Of Degree,[*](Περὶ μεγέθους, between two books on Enthymemes, must be on Degree, the topic of μᾶλλον καὶ ἧττον(§ 60). Degree is Cope’s term (see his Introduction to Aristotle’s Rhetoric, p. 129, where he cites Aristotle’s own distinctions in Rhetoric, ii. cc. 18, 19).) one book.
  • Divisions of Enthymemes, one book.
  • On Diction, two books.
  • Of Taking Counsel, one book.