Diogenes Laërtius · fl. 3rd century CE
Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.85 — Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
Translation by R. D. Hicks (1925)
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.85
Reported speech · Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
An animal’s first impulse, say the Stoics, is to selfpreservation, because nature from the outset endears it to itself, as Chrysippus affirms in the first book of his work On Ends: his words are, “The dearest thing to every animal is its own constitution and its consciousness thereof”; for it was not likely that nature should estrange the living thing from itself or that she should leave the creature she has made without either estrangement from or affection for its own constitution. We are forced then to conclude that nature in constituting the animal made it near and dear to itself; for so it comes to repel all that is injurious and give free access to all that is serviceable or akin to it.
Cite this passage
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.85 (on the Stoics), tr. R. D. Hicks (1925)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/lives-of-the-stoics/7.85
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 notesEvery animal's first impulse is self-preservation, because nature makes it fond of itself and aware of its own makeup, so it pushes away what harms it and welcomes what helps. This is the starting point of Stoic ethics. Theory with little direct advice.
Older wording
- “constitution”
- — the basic makeup or nature of a thing
- “estrangement”
- — feeling alienated or turned against something
- “impulse”
- — the natural urge to act or move toward something
Themes and situations
- Nature and the cosmos
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