Stobaeus

Joannes Stobaeus (Ἰωάννης ὁ Στοβαῖος; fl. 5th-century CE) was the compiler of a valuable series of extracts from Greek authors.

Quotes by and about Diogenes of Sinope

• Diogenes, on being sold as a slave at Corinth, was asked by the auctioneer what he could do. "Rule men," he replied. "Do you suppose," asked the other, "that people want to buy masters?”
  • iii. 3. 52

• Other dogs bite their enemies, but I my friends in order to save them.
  • iii. 13. 44

• Pride, like a shepherd, drives people where it pleases.
  • iii. 22. 41

• The things which philosophy attempts to teach by reasoning, poverty forces us to practice.
  • iv. 32a. 11

Pythagorean Ethical Sentences

• When the wise man opens his mouth, the beauties of his soul present themselves to the view, like the statues in a temple.
  • 11

• Those things which the body necessarily requires, are easily to be procured by all men, without labour and molestation; but those things to the attainment of which labour and molestation are requisite, are objects of desire, not to the body, but to depraved opinion.
  • 20

• As a bodily disease cannot be healed, if it be concealed, or praised, thus also, neither can a remedy be applied to a diseased soul, which is badly guarded and protected.
  • 24

• Be rather delighted with those that reprove, than with those that flatter you.
  • 29

• The life of the avaricious resembles a funeral banquet. For though it has all things requisite to a feast, yet no one present rejoices.
  • 30

• Pythagoras said, that it was requisite either to be silent, or to say something better than silence.
  • 36

• Pythagoras being asked how a man ought to conduct himself towards his country, when it had acted iniquitously with respect to him, replied, as to a mother.
  • 40

• To the wise man every land is eligible as a place of residence; for the whole world is the country of the worthy soul.
  • 42

• Pythagoras said, that of cities that was the best which contained most worthy men.
  • 44

• Expel by reasoning the unrestrained grief of a torpid soul.
  • 50

• Spare your life, lest you consume it with sorrow and care.
  • 52

See also

• Anecdotes about Diogenes preserved by Stobaeus