Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
NUMBER:
482
AUTHOR:
Aristotle (384–322 B.C.)
QUOTATION:
[The educated differ from the uneducated] as much as the living from the dead.
ATTRIBUTION:
Attributed to ARISTOTLE.—Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, trans. R. D. Hicks, vol. 1, book 5, section 19, p. 463 (1942).
He also credits Aristotle with saying: “Teachers who educated children deserved more honour than parents who merely gave them birth; for bare life is furnished by the one, the other ensures a good life” (p. 463).
Diogenes Laertius, a third century A.D. Greek writer, was a literary compiler rather than a philosopher. Considered the most significant secondary source of information covering the history of philosophy, his book is the only work of its kind that has come down to us substantially intact. A special feature of it is the citation of original excerpts.—Michael Grant, Greek and Latin Authors, pp. 131–32 (1980).
