Diogenes Laertius, Vitae philosophorum, R. D. Hicks (Translator), 10.1.43

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[43] [ For neither does the divisibility go on ad infinitum, he says below¹ ; but he adds, since the qualities change, unless one is prepared to keep enlarging their magnitudes also simply ad infinitum.]

The atoms are in continual motion through all eternity. [ Further, he says below,² that the atoms move with equal speed, since the void makes way for the lightest and heaviest alike.] Some of them rebound to a considerable distance from each other, while others merely oscillate in one place when they chance to have got entangled or to be enclosed by a mass of other atoms shaped for entangling.³

Vitae philosophorum. Diogenes Laertius. R. D. Hicks (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1925.

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Current edition Perseus

Lives of Eminent Philosophers (English) (Diogenes Laertius. Hicks, R. D., editor. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1925.)

Editions (1)

Βίοι καὶ γνῶμαι τῶν ἐν φιλοσοφίᾳ εὐδοκιμησάντων Perseus (Diogenes Laertius. Hicks, R. D., editor. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1925.) — 10.1.43 focus

[43] ἄπειροι ἀλλὰ μόνον ἀπερίληπτοι, [οὐδὲ γάρ φησιν ἐνδοτέρω εἰς ἄπειρον τὴν τομὴν τυγχάνειν. λέγει δέ, ἐπειδὴ αἱ ποιότητες μεταβάλλονται, εἰ μέλλει τις μὴ καὶ τοῖς μεγέθεσιν ἁπλῶς εἰς ἄπειρον αὐτὰς ἐκβάλλειν].

“Κινοῦνταί τε συνεχῶς αἱ ἄτομοι [φησὶ δὲ ἐνδοτέρω καὶ ἰσοταχῶς αὐτὰς κινεῖσθαι τοῦ κενοῦ τὴν εἶξιν ὁμοίαν παρεχομένου καὶ τῇ κουφοτάτῃ καὶ τῇ βαρυτάτῃ.] τὸν αἰῶνα, καὶ αἱ μὲν εἰς μακρὰν ἀπʼ ἀλλήλων διιστάμεναι, αἱ δὲ αὐτοῦ τὸν παλμὸν ἴσχουσιν, ὅταν τύχωσι τῇ περιπλοκῇ¹ κεκλειμέναι ἢ στεγαζόμενοι παρὰ τῶν πλεκτικῶν.

Notes on the current edition

Lives of Eminent Philosophers

1. Properly further within—a proof that the Scholiast read his Epicurus from a papyrus scroll which had to be unrolled. Hence further within or nearer the centre expresses the same thing as further on or below in a modern book.

2. Properly further within—a proof that the Scholiast read his Epicurus from a papyrus scroll which had to be unrolled. Hence further within or nearer the centre expresses the same thing as further on or below in a modern book.

3. Note the distinction between (1) solids, composed of interlacing atoms (which have got entangled), and (2) fluids, composed of atoms not interlaced, needing a sheath or container of other atoms, if they are to remain united. To (2) belongs Soul (§ 66). See Lucr. ii. 80-141; Cic. De fin. i. 7.

Diogenes Laertius Vitae philosophorum 10.1.43

R. D. Hicks (Translator)

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