Diogenes Laërtius · fl. 3rd century CE
Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.141 — Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
Translation by R. D. Hicks (1925)
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.141
Reported speech · Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
Time too is incorporeal, being the measure of the world’s motion. And time past and time future are infinite, but time present is finite. They hold that the world must come to an end, inasmuch as it had a beginning, on the analogy of those things which are understood by the senses. And that of which the parts are perishable is perishable as a whole. Now the parts of the world are perishable, seeing that they are transformed one into the other. Therefore the world itself is doomed to perish. Moreover, anything is destructible if it admits of deterioration; therefore the world is so, for it is first evaporated and again dissolved into water.
Cite this passage
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.141 (on the Stoics), tr. R. D. Hicks (1925)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/lives-of-the-stoics/7.141
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 notesTime is the measure of the world's motion, with endless past and future but a finite present. Because the world had a beginning and its parts change and perish, the world as a whole must perish too.
Older wording
- “incorporeal”
- — without a body
- “perishable”
- — liable to be destroyed
- “deterioration”
- — gradual decay
Themes and situations
- Nature and the cosmos
- Change and impermanence
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