The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laërtius (best free ebook reader txt) 📕

That is to say, the harmony between intellect and the senses will not last long. Attagas and Numenius were two notorious brigands. ↩

That is, “trifler,” from κρίνω, to judge; and λῆρος, nonsensical talk. ↩

That is, flattering for gifts; from σαίνω, to wag the tail as a dog, to caress; and δῶρον, a gift. ↩

This sentence is a remark of Diogenes himself. There are several more of his observations in parentheses as we proceed. ↩

This is the argument in its completed form: “We can only form an idea of an atom by analogy, and analogy demonstrates to us that it is not of infinite littleness. In fact, let us compare it to the smallest particles recognisable by sense, and then let us endeavor to form an idea of these last. To do this we must take a term of comparison in complex objects, which are composed of various parts. Abstracting from these all other characteristics but that of extent, we see that these objects have dimensions, some greater and some less, measuring an extent which is greater or less as the case may be. The smallest sensible particle will then have its dimensions; it will measure the smallest possible sensible extent, that is to say, it will not be infinitely small. Applying this analogy to an atom, one comes to conceive it as measuring the smallest extent possible, but not as having no extent at all, which was what Epicurus wished to prove.” —⁠French Translator ↩

This is a quotation from Theognis. ↩

From the Trachiniae of Sophocles, 1784. ↩

There is some hopeless corruption in the text here. Nor has anyone succeeded in making it intelligible. The French translator divides it into two maxims. ↩

There in some great corruption here again. The French translator takes 19, 20, and 21 all as one. ↩

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
was written in the third century AD by
Diogenes Laërtius.
It was translated from Greek in 1853 by
C. D. Yonge.

This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
David M. Gross,
and is based on a transcription produced in 2018 by
Ted Garvin and The Online Distributed Proofreading Team
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans available at
Google Books.

The cover page is adapted from
Saint Jerome,
a painting completed around 1621 by
Hendrick ter Brugghen.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.

The first edition of this ebook was released on
May 2, 2020, 6:23 p.m.
You can check for updates to this ebook, view its revision history, or download it for different ereading systems at
standardebooks.org/ebooks/diogenes-laertius/the-lives-and-opinions-of-eminent-philosophers/c-d-yonge.

The volunteer-driven Standard Ebooks project relies on readers like you to submit typos, corrections, and other improvements. Anyone can contribute at standardebooks.org.

May you do good and not evil.
May you find forgiveness for yourself and forgive others.
May you share freely, never taking more than you give.

Copyright pages exist to tell you can’t do something. Unlike them, this Uncopyright page exists to tell you, among other things, that the writing and artwork in this ebook are believed to be in the U.S. public domain. The U.S. public domain represents our collective cultural heritage, and items in it are free for anyone in the U.S. to do almost anything at all with, without having to get permission. Public domain items are free of copyright restrictions.

Copyright laws are different around the world. If you’re not located in the U.S., check with your local laws before using this ebook.

Non-authorship activities performed on public domain items⁠—so-called “sweat of the brow” work⁠—don’t create a new copyright. That means nobody can claim a new copyright on a public domain item for, among other things, work like digitization, markup, or typography. Regardless, to dispel any possible doubt on the copyright status of this ebook, Standard Ebooks L3C, its contributors, and the contributors to this ebook release this ebook under the terms in the CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication, thus dedicating to the worldwide public domain all of the work they’ve done on this ebook, including but not limited to metadata, the titlepage, imprint, colophon, this Uncopyright, and any changes or enhancements to, or markup on, the original text and artwork. This dedication doesn’t change the copyright status of the underlying works, which, though believed to already be in the U.S. public domain, may not yet be in the public domain of other countries. We make this dedication in the interest of enriching our global cultural heritage, to promote free and libre culture around the world, and to give back to the unrestricted culture that has given all of us so much.