Inspirational Quotes by Theophrastus (Greek Philosopher)

Theophrastus (c.372 BCE–287 BCE) was a Greek botanist and philosopher.

Born in Eresus on Lesbos island, Theophrastus studied at Athens under Aristotle and became a confidante of Aristotle. He became head of the Peripatetic School (Lyceum) after Aristotle’s death in 322 BCE and is responsible for preserving many of Aristotle’s works.

Most of Theophrastus’s own prolific output is lost, but his surviving work includes two important treatises on plants, Peri phytōn historia (‘Inquiry into Plants’) and Peri phytōn aitiōn (‘Growth of Plants.’) He was the first to conceive and use botanical terms, and is often called ‘the father of scientific botany.’

Theophrastus extant works include reconstructed fragments of the history of the Pre-Socratic philosophers, and the more literary volume of Charaktēres (‘Characters,) containing 30 brief and vigorous sketches of different moral types. Charaktēres has been widely translated and imitated, most prominently in French philosopher and moralist Jean de La Bruyère’s masterpiece, Les Caractères (1699.)

Among Theophrastus’s other works is the Physikōn doxai (‘Opinions of Natural Philosophers.’) As reconstructed by German classic scholar Herman Diels in Doxographi Graeci (1879,) it provides a foundation for the history of ancient philosophy.

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