Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers 8.57

A fragment from a lost work of Aristotle.

Ἀριστοτέλης δ’ ἐν τῷ σοφιστῇ φησὶ πρῶτον Ἐμπεδοκλέα ῥητορικὴν εὑρεῖν, Ζήνωνα δὲ διαλεκτικήν.

Aristotle says in his Sophist that Empedocles was the first to discover rhetoric, and Zeno dialectic.

Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers 7.28

The death of Zeno the Stoic.

ἐτελεύτα δὴ οὕτως· ἐκ τῆς σχολῆς ἀπιὼν προσέπταισε καὶ τὸν δάκτυλον περιέρρηξε· παίσας δὲ τὴν γῆν τῇ χερί φησι τὸ ἐκ τῆς Νιόβης “ἔρχομαι· τι? μ’ αὔεις;” και παραχρῆμα ἐτελεύτησεν ἀποπνίξας ἑαυτόν.

He died in this way: as he was leaving the school he stumbled and broke his toe. He struck the ground with his hand, spoke the line from Niobe, ‘I am coming! Why do you call me?’, and immediately suffocated himself to death.

Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers 6.63

Diogenes Laertius records a remark of his namesake, the Cynic philosopher Diogenes of Sinope.

ἐρωτηθεὶς πόθεν εἴη, “κοσμοπολίτης,” ἔφη.

On being asked where he was from, he said, ‘I’m a citizen of the world.’

Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers 10.22

Epicurus writes a letter on his deathbed.

ἤδη δὲ τελευτῶν γράφει πρὸς Ἰδομενέα τήνδε ἐπιστολήν· “τὴν μακαρίαν ἄγοντες καὶ ἅμα τελευταίαν ἡμέραν τοῦ βίου ἐγράφομεν ὑμῖν ταυτί. στραγγουρικά τε παρηκολούθει καὶ δυσεντερικὰ πάθη ὑπερβολὴν οὐκ ἀπολείποντα τοῦ ἐν ἑαυτοῖς μεγέθους. ἀντιπαρετάττετο δὲ πᾶσι τούτοις τὸ κατὰ ψυχὴν χαῖρον ἐπὶ τῇ τῶν γεγονότων ἡμῖν διαλογισμῶν μνήμῃ. σὺ δ’ ἀξίως τῆς ἐκ μειρακίου παραστάσεως πρὸς ἐμὲ καὶ φιλοσοφίαν ἐπιμελοῦ τῶν παίδων Μητροδώρου.”

When he was already dying he wrote the following letter to Idomeneus: “Living this blessed and also final day of my life I write this to you. Sufferings from strangury and dysentery are continually with me, and there is no way in which there could be any increase in their magnitude. Yet against them all I set the joy of my soul at the remembrance of our past conversations. But as for you: as befits your support of me and of philosophy since your youth, take care of Metrodorus’ children.” 

Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers 9.5-6

Diogenes is discussing Heraclitus:

τὸ δὲ φερόμενον αὐτοῦ βιβλίον ἐστὶ μὲν ἀπὸ τοῦ συνέχοντος ‘περὶ φύσεως’, διῄρηται δ’ εἰς τρεῖς λόγους, εἴς τε τὸν περὶ τοῦ παντὸς καὶ πολιτικὸν καὶ θεολογικόν. ἀνέθηκε δ’ αὐτὸ εἰς τὸ τῆς Ἀρτέμιδος ἱερόν, ὡς μέν τινες, ἐπιτηδεύσας ἀσαφέστερον γράψαι, ὅπως οἱ δυνάμενοι <μόνοι> προσίοιεν αὐτῷ καὶ μὴ ἐκ τοῦ δημώδους εὐκαταφρόνητον ᾖ.

The book which is attributed to him is On Nature, a continuous work but divided into three sections: one on the whole cosmos, one on politics and one on theology. He dedicated it in the temple of Artemis; according to some people he deliberately wrote it in a rather obscure way, so that only those who had the ability would approach it, and so that familiarity should not breed contempt.

Xenophanes, fr. 7

This fragment of Xenophanes’ poetry survives in a quotation by Diogenes Laertius (8.36). The 6th-century BC poet-philosopher tells a story about Pythagoras’ opposition to animal cruelty – although, to quote Catherine Osborne (Dumb Beasts and Dead Philosophers, Oxford 2007, 47), ‘It is wholly unclear from the context whether Xenophanes is poking fun at Pythagoras[…] or whether he is an admirer’.

ὁ δὲ περὶ αὐτοῦ φησιν, οὕτως ἔχει·

καί ποτέ μιν στυφελιζομένου σκύλακος παριόντα
φασὶν ἐποικτῖραι καὶ τόδε φάσθαι ἔπος·
‘παῦσαι μηδὲ ῤάπιζ᾿, ἐπεὶ ἦ φίλου ἀνέρος ἐστίν
ψυχή, τὴν ἔγνων φθεγξαμένης ἀίων’.

And what he says about him (=Pythagoras) is as follows:

And on one occasion, they say, he was walking past when a puppy was being maltreated. Taking pity on it he made this speech: ‘Stop! Don’t thrash him, because it’s the soul of a man dear to me; I recognised it when I heard it screaming.’