Vitae philosophorum

Diogenes Laertius

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

Diocles records the following sayings of his: To the wise man nothing is foreign or impracticable. A good man deserves to be loved. Men of worth are friends. Make allies of men who are at once brave and just. Virtue is a weapon that cannot be taken away. It is better to be with a handful of good men fighting against all the bad, than with hosts of bad men against a handful of good men. Pay attention to your enemies, for they are the first to discover your mistakes. Esteem an honest man above a kinsman. Virtue is the same for women as for men. Good actions are fair and evil actions foul. Count all wickedness foreign and alien.

Wisdom is a most sure stronghold which never crumbles away nor is betrayed. Walls of defence must be constructed in our own impregnable reasonings. He used to converse in the gymnasium of Cynosarges (White hound) at no great distance from the gates, and some think that the Cynic school derived its name from Cynosarges. Antisthenes

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himself too was nicknamed a hound pure and simple. And he was the first, Diocles tells us, to double his cloak and be content with that one garment and to take up a staff and a wallet. Neanthes too asserts that he was the first to double his mantle. Sosicrates, however, in the third book of his Successions of Philosophers says this was first done by Diodorus of Aspendus, who also let his beard grow and used a staff and a wallet.

Of all the Socratics Antisthenes alone is praised by Theopompus, who says he had consummate skill and could by means of agreeable discourse win over whomsoever he pleased. And this is clear from his writings and from Xenophon’s Banquet. It would seem that the most manly section of the Stoic School owed its origin to him. Hence Athenaeus the epigrammatist writes thus of them[*](Anth. Pal. ix. 496.):

Ye experts in Stoic story, ye who commit to sacred pages most excellent doctrines—that virtue alone is the good of the soul: for virtue alone saves man’s life and cities. But that Muse[*](i.e. Erato; cf. Athen. xiii. p. 555 b, Ap. Rhod. iii. 1.) that is one of the daughters of Memory approves the pampering of the flesh, which other men have chosen for their aim.

Antisthenes[*](It seems clear that the passage which begins here is not from the same source as that (in § 14) which precedes the epigram.) gave the impulse to the indifference of Diogenes, the continence of Crates, and the hardihood of Zeno, himself laying the foundations of their state. Xenophon calls him the most agreeable of men in conversation and the most temperate in everything else.

His writings are preserved in ten volumes. The first includes:

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A Treatise on Expression, or Styles of Speaking.

Ajax, or The Speech of Ajax.

Odysseus, or Concerning Odysseus.

A Defence of Orestes, or Concerning Forensic Writers.

Isography (similar writing), or Lysias and Isocrates.

A Reply to the Speech of Isocrates entitled Without Witnesses.

Vol. 2 includes:

Of the Nature of Animals.

Of Procreation of Children, or Of Marriage: a discourse on love.

Of the Sophists: a work on Physiognomy.

On Justice and Courage: a hortative work in three books.

Concerning Theognis, making a fourth and a fifth book.

In the third volume are treatises:

Of the Good.

Of Courage.

Of Law, or Of a Commonwealth.

Of Law, or Of Goodness and Justice.

Of Freedom and Slavery.

Of Belief.

Of the Guardian, or On Obedience.

Of Victory: an economic work.

In the fourth volume are included:

Cyrus.

The Greater Heracles, or Of Strength.

The fifth contains:

Cyrus, or Of Sovereignty.

Aspasia.

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The sixth:

Truth.

Of Discussion: a handbook of debate.

Satho, or Of Contradiction, in three books.

On Talk.