Lives of eminent philosophers

What Hacker News says

1. jyuAug 2021
   Diogenes of Sinope. The more you read about him the stranger things get. Alexander the Great came to him and sought his guidance. Instead of being impressed and delighted by his request, Diogenes asked Alexander the Great to move to stop blocking his sunlight. Unfortunately, most of his primary sources have been lost besides "Lives of Eminent Philosophers." His stories offer great levity and fresh perspective.
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2. jffhnAug 2024
   "Plato had defined Man as an animal, biped and featherless, and was applauded. Diogenes plucked a fowl and brought it into the lecture room with the words, "Here is Plato's man."" (Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers)
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3. cess11May 2024
   It's a reference to Ecclesiastes (5:10) and Diogenes (Lives of Eminent Philosophers, VI.2 stanza 50), both probably well known by Timothy and the jews he was evangelising among. I'm not sure whether Diogenes used the word philargyria and can't be bothered to try and dig it up, but I think it's a rather literal translation of Ecclesiastes which has something like 'o-heb kesep', 'he who loves silver'.

   Hebrew and aramaic doesn't have a word that directly translates to greed, but the meaning of philargyria is related to money rather than the metal and Ecclesiastes obviously describes 'love of silver' as a form of addiction and that's what Paul (or whoever actually wrote the epistle) had in mind when he wrote to Timothy and the jews he hung around with.

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4. cafardMay 2022
   "He used also to say that when he saw physicians, philosophers and pilots at their work, he deemed man the most intelligent of all animals ; but when again he saw interpreters of dreams and diviners and those who attended to them, or those who were puffed up with conceit of wealth, he thought no animal more silly."

   The life of Diogenes in Lives of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius*, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%...

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5. jonvillageDec 2017
   This year I've read:

   Maxims - Epictetus

   The road to serfdom - Friedrich Hayek

   De officiis - Cicero

   De divinatione - Cicero

   Lives of eminent philosophers - Diogenes Laertius

   Confessions - Al ghazali

   Illiad - Homer

   Odyssey - Homer

   Influence - Robert Cialdini

   Guns, Germs and steel - Jared Diamond

   Poor Charlie's Almanack - Charlie Munger - 2nd reading

   Andrew Carnegie's Biography - Joseph Frazier

   Fooled by Randomness - Nassim Taleb - 2nd reading

   Bed of Procrustes - Nassim Taleb

   Never Split the Difference - Christopher Voss

   The intelligent investor - Benjamin Graham

   Autobiography - Benjamin Franklin

   I always remember this quote:

   "In my whole life, I have known no wise people who didn't read all the time -- none, zero." Charlie Munger

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