ἱστορίαι Historiai
D.L. 10.139-141 Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Volume II (Books VI-X), Diogenes Laertius; served verbatim
result uniformly from the continuous influx of similar images directed to the same spot and in human form. 2. Death is nothing to us ; for the body, when it has been resolved into its elements, has no feeling, and that which has no feeling is nothing to us. 3. The magnitude of pleasure reaches its limit in the removal of all pain. When pleasure is present, so long as it is uninterrupted, there is no pain either of body or of mind or of both together. 4. Continuous pain does not last long in the flesh ; on the contrary, pain, if extreme, is present a very short time, and even that degree of pain which barely outweighs pleasure in the flesh does not last for many days together. Illnesses of long duration even permit of an excess of pleasure over pain in the flesh. 5. It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and well and justly, and it is impossible to live wisely and well and justly without living pleasantly. Whenever any one of these is lacking, when, for instance, the man is not able to live wisely, though he lives well and justly, it is impossible for him to live a pleasant life. 6. In order to obtain security from other men any means whatsoever of procuring this was a natural good. a 7. Some men have sought to become famous and renowned, thinking that thus they would make themselves secure against their fellow-men. If, then, the life of such persons really was secure, they attained natural good ; if, however, it was insecure, they have not attained the end which by nature's own prompting they originally sought. a Usener, followed by Bignone, regards apxv$ xai (3aai\eias of the vulgate text as a marginal gloss on e'£ &v.

The Greek stands ready in the workroom; the English is served. Both faces will read together.

← D.L. 10.137-139 contents D.L. 10.141-143 →

Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Volume II (Books VI-X), Diogenes Laertius — translated by R. D. Hicks, 1925
Apparatus shelf — Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, vol. II (R. D. Hicks translation, Loeb L185) · 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 from the scan itself; only the English rectos are served, Hicks's translation)