ἱστορίαι Historiai
D.L. 9.74-76 Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Volume II (Books VI-X), Diogenes Laertius; served verbatim
the theories for the purpose of indicating our unprecipitate attitude, precisely as we niiglit have done if we had actually assented to them. Thus by the expression " We determine nothing " is indicated their state of even balance ; whicli is similarly indicated by the other expressions, " Not more (one thing than another)," " Every saying has its corresponding opposite," and the like. But " Not more (one thing than another) " can also be taken positively, indicating that two things are alike ; for example, " The pirate is no more wicked thanthe liar." But the Sceptics meant it not positively but negatively, as when, in refuting an argument, one says", " Neither had more existence, Scylla or the Chimaera." And " More so " itself is sometimes comparative, as when we say that " Honey is more sweet than grapes " ; sometimes both positive and negative, as when we say, " Virtue profits more than it harms," for in this phrase we indicate that virtue profits and does not harm. But the Sceptics even refute the statement " Not more (one thing than another)." For, as forethought is no more existent than non-existent, so " Not more (one thing than another) " is no more existent than not. Thus, as Timon says in the Pytho, the statement means just absence of all determination and withholding of assent. The other statement, " Every saying, etc.," a equally compels suspension of judgement ; when facts disagree, but the contradictory statements have exactly the same weight, ignorance of the truth is the necessary consequence. But even this statement has its corresponding antithesis, so that after destroying others it turns round and destroys itself, like a purge which drives the substance

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

← D.L. 9.73-74 contents D.L. 9.76-79 →

Filed here — the addresses this episode attests; counted by the house’s first pass
Timon — a candidate entry

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)