Diogenes Laërtius · fl. 3rd century CE
Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.118 — Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
Translation by R. D. Hicks (1925)
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.118
Reported speech · Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
Again, the good are genuinely in earnest and vigilant for their own improvement, using a manner of life which banishes evil out of sight and makes what good there is in things appear. At the same time they are free from pretence; for they have stripped off all pretence or “make-up” whether in voice or in look. Free too are they from all business cares, declining to do anything which conflicts with duty. They will take wine, but not get drunk. Nay more, they will not be liable to madness either; not but what there will at times occur to the good man strange impressions due to melancholy or delirium, ideas not determined by the principle of what is choiceworthy but contrary to nature. Nor indeed will the wise man ever feel grief; seeing that grief is irrational contraction of the soul, as Apollodorus says in his Ethics.
Cite this passage
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.118 (on the Stoics), tr. R. D. Hicks (1925)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/lives-of-the-stoics/7.118
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book VII, tr. R. D. Hicks (Loeb, 1925). Text: Perseus Digital Library (CC BY-SA 4.0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesGood people are serious, watchful over their own improvement and without pretence or make-up in voice or face. They avoid business that conflicts with duty and drink wine without getting drunk. Grief, being an irrational contraction of the soul, has no place in the wise.
Older wording
- “choiceworthy”
- — worth choosing
- “melancholy”
- — a dark, depressed state of mind
- “delirium”
- — confused, feverish thinking
Themes and situations
- Virtue and character
- Learning and progress
- Self-discipline and habit
- Grief and mourning
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