Lives of the Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius

Everyone wants to live a meaningful life. Long before our own day of self-help books offering twelve-step programs and other guides to attain happiness, the philosophers of ancient Greece explored the riddle of what makes a life worth living, producing a wide variety of ideas and examples to follow. This rich tradition was recast by Diogenes Laertius into an anthology, a miscellany of maxims and anecdotes, that generations of Western readers have consulted for edification as well as entertainment ever since the Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, first compiled in the third century AD, came to prominence in Renaissance Italy. To this day, it remains a crucial source for much of what we know about the origins and practice of philosophy in ancient Greece, covering a longer period of time and a larger number of figures-from Pythagoras and Socrates to Aristotle and Epicurus-than any other ancient source.

This new edition of the Lives, in a faithful and eminently readable translation by Pamela Mensch, is the first rendering of the complete text into English in nearly a century. Lavishly illustrated with a vast array of artwork that attests to the profound impact of Diogenes on the Western imagination, this edition also includes detailed notes and a variety of newly commissioned essays by leading scholars that shed light on the work's historical and intellectual contexts as well as its rich legacy. The result is a capacious, fascinating, and charming compendium of ancient inspiration
and instruction.

Pamela Mensch is a translator of Greek prose whose works include The Landmark Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander (Anchor, 2012), Herodotus' Histories (Hackett, 2014, ed. James Romm), and Plutarch's The Age of Caesar: Five Roman Lives (Norton, 2017, ed. Romm).

James Miller is Professor of Liberal Studies and Politics and Faculty Director of Creative Publishing & Critical Journalism at the New School. He has authored and edited an array of reputed works, including Examined Lives: From Socrates to Nietzsche (Picador, 2012), The Passion of Michel Foucault (Simon & Schuster, 1993), History and Human Existence: From Marx to Merleau-Ponty (University of Chicago Press, 1982), and the Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock'n'Roll (Random House, 1976), among numerous others.

Editor's introduction James Miller

Translator's preface Pamela Mensch

Diogenes Laertius, Lives and Doctrines of the Eminent Philosophers

Book 1
Book 2
Book 3
Book 4
Book 5
Book 6
Book 7
Book 8
Book 9
Book 10

Essays
Annotated Bibliography Jay Elliot
Annotated list of sources
Biographical index of persons
Index of places