The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

Having read the book "The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers" written by Diogenes Laertius, I would like to express here the conclusions the above-mentioned work has led me to. First of all, it is important for me to note that the ease with which the thoughts and manners of people so different from us, who lived several thousands years ago can be understood is very surprising.

The study of ancient philosophy gives us the idea that mental abilities of people of the past were no worse than that of ours, despite the nuance that they, for instance, could think of the brain as of an organ, the purpose of which was to cool off the body (ironically speaking, I have to admit that this is true in some degree, for most people nowadays use their brains for anything but thinking).

On the other hand, it makes us face the fact that there certainly had not been any development of the human mind since the first sparks of what we now call "philosophy" appeared - this is just the human mind that technically improves everyday amenities (cars, aircrafts, computers, for example). Sitting behind the wheel of a supercharged Ferrari won't make a naked ape stop being a naked ape.

So, I think the questions I have raised in this thread are worth being thought through, and the book is worth being read; to demonstrate this, I am going to quote some excerpts below.

Thales.

Once being asked why he did not himself become a father, Thales answered, that it was because he was fond of children.

He said also that there was no difference between life and death. "Why, then," said some one to him, "do not you die?" "Because," said he, "it does make no difference."

Anacharsis.

Being reproached by an Athenian for being a Scythian, Anacharsis said, "Well, my country is a disgrace to me, but you are a disgrace to your country."

Diogenes.

On one occasion, when no one came to listen to him while he was discoursing seriously, he began to whistle. And then when people flocked round him, he reproached them for coming with eagerness to folly, but being lazy and indifferent about good things.

When some people said to him, "You are an old man, and should rest for the remainder of your life;" "Why so?" replied be, "suppose I had run a long distance, ought I to stop when I was near the end, and not rather press on?"

A man once asked him what was the proper time for supper, and he made answer, "If you are a rich man, whenever you please; and if you are a poor man, whenever you can."

And when, on another occasion, some one said to him, "The people of Sinope condemned you to banishment," he replied, "And I condemned them to remain where they were."

He once asked for a statue ; and being questioned as to his reason for doing so, he said, "I am practicing disappointment."

"Most people laugh at you;" "And very likely," he replied, "the asses laugh at them; but they do not regard the asses, neither do I regard them."

When a man said to him, "I am not calculated for philosophy," he said, "Why then do you live, if you have no desire to live properly?"

One day he saw an unskilful archer shooting; so he went and sat down by the target, saying, "Now I shall be out of harm's way."

Alexander was once standing by him, and saying, "Do not you fear me?" He replied, "No; for what are you, a good or an evil?" And as he said that he was good, "Who, then," said Diogenes, "fears the good?"

Once, while he was sitting in the sun in the Craneum, Alexander was standing by, and said to him, "Ask any favour you choose of me." And he replied, "Cease to shade me from the sun."

When he was asked whether death was an evil, he replied, "How can that be an evil which we do not feel when it is present?"

On one occasion he was working with his hands in the market-place, and said, "I wish I could rub my stomach in the same way, and so avoid hunger."