zn. Yet it is said that Chaos was the first born of the gods. A. How so? If indeed there was nothing out of which, or into which, it could come first. B. What! Then did nothing come first after all ? A. No, by Zeus, nor second either, at least of the things which we are thus talking about now; on the contrary, they existed from all eternity. ... Aa. But suppose some one chooses to add a single pebble to a heap containing either an odd or an even number, whichever you please, or to take away one of those already there ; do you think the number of pebbles would remain the same ? BeeNOL ie a. Nor yet, if one chooses to add to a cubit-measure another length,* or cut off some of what was there already, would the original measure still exist ? B. Of course not. A. Now consider mankind in this same way. One man grows, and another again shrinks ; and they are all undergoing change the whole time. But a thing which naturally changes and never remains in the same state must ever be different from that which has thus changed. And even so you and I were one pair of men yesterday, are another to-day, and again will be another to-morrow, and will never remain ourselves, by this same argument.”
The Greek stands ready in the workroom; the English is served. Both faces will read together.
Zeus — a candidate entry
Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Volume I (Books I-V), Diogenes Laertius — translated by R. D. Hicks, 1925
Apparatus shelf — Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, vol. I (R. D. Hicks translation, Loeb L184) · R. D. Hicks, Loeb Classical Library, London: William Heinemann / New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, MCMXXV (1925)
license: public-domain (US: published 1925, pre-1930 — the MCMXXV title page verified by the 2026-07-08 acquisition lane, pin in ops/sources/MANIFEST.md; only the English rectos are served, Hicks's translation)