Diogenes Laërtius · fl. 3rd century CE
Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.166 — Diogenes Laërtius on Dionysius
Translation by R. D. Hicks (1925)
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.166
Reported speech · Diogenes Laërtius on Dionysius
Dionysius, the Renegade, declared that pleasure was the end of action; this under the trying circumstance of an attack of ophthalmia. For so violent was his suffering that he could not bring himself to call pain a thing indifferent. He was the son of Theophantus and a native of Heraclea. At first, as Diocles relates, he was a pupil of his fellow-townsman, Heraclides, next of Alexinus and Menedemus, and lastly of Zeno.
Cite this passage
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.166 (on Dionysius), tr. R. D. Hicks (1925)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/lives-of-the-stoics/7.166b
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book VII, tr. R. D. Hicks (Loeb, 1925). Text: Perseus Digital Library (CC BY-SA 4.0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesDionysius broke with the Stoics and held that pleasure is the goal after a painful eye disease made it impossible for him to call pain indifferent. His life and teachers are then briefly listed.
Older wording
- “ophthalmia”
- — painful inflammation of the eyes
- “Renegade”
- — someone who deserts his school or cause
Themes and situations
- Pleasure and pain
- Illness and the body
- Learning and progress
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