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Who really said it

Virtue is harmony

Not Pythagoras’s own words — a later Pythagorean tenet Pythagoras c. 570 – c. 490 BC · Greek philosopher of Samos and Croton
Disputed Free to reuse

Pythagoras wrote nothing. The line comes from Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 8.33, in a list of tenets that “Alexander in his Successions of Philosophers says that he found in the Pythagorean memoirs.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy ↗ calls those memoirs “a forgery dating sometime around 200 BCE.” The exact English wording is R. D. Hicks’s translation, first published in 1925. The idea belongs to the Pythagorean tradition, but nothing shows that Pythagoras himself said it.

Last verified 3 Nov 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“Virtue is harmony” Not Pythagoras's own words: a Pythagorean tenet reported by Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 8.33, from "the Pythagorean memoirs" (tr. R. D. Hicks, 1925). · Verbatim: “Virtue is harmony, and so are health and all good and God himself; this is why they say that all things are constructed according to the laws of harmony.”

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Pythagoras. Use the credit shown above instead.

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In context

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Provenance

Where the words actually appear

Work
Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book VIII (Pythagoras), §33
Author
Diogenes Laërtius, reporting Alexander’s excerpts from “the Pythagorean memoirs”
Translation
R. D. Hicks (Loeb Classical Library 185; London: Heinemann; New York: Putnam, 1925)
Greek
την τ’ αρετην αρμονιαν ειναι…

Right has the force of an oath, and that is why Zeus is called the God of Oaths. Virtue is harmony, and so are health and all good and God himself; this is why they say that all things are constructed according to the laws of harmony. The love of friends is just concord and equality. Diogenes Laërtius 8.33 · tr. Hicks

The list begins at 8.24 with: “Alexander in his Successions of Philosophers says that he found in the Pythagorean memoirs the following tenets as well.” In Hicks’s note to that passage, the Alexander is Alexander Polyhistor, of the first century BC, and the source is “a Hellenistic document long forgotten.” C. D. Yonge’s older translation gives the same phrase: “virtue is harmony, and health, and universal good, and God.”

Diogenes Laertius, Lives, Book VIII, tr. R. D. Hicks (Perseus Digital Library)

How we traced it

  • Wikiquote’s Pythagoras page lists “Virtue is harmony” under Disputed. It notes that the line “seems to be derived from the account of Diogenes Laertius of Pythagorean doctrines, where he simply describes the statement as a precept of his followers” (Wikiquote ↗).
  • The exact wording appears in R. D. Hicks’s translation of Diogenes Laërtius 8.33, inside a list of tenets that Alexander “found in the Pythagorean memoirs” (Perseus, Hicks ↗). The Greek reads την τ’ αρετην αρμονιαν ειναι (Perseus, Greek ↗).
  • The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy says that “Pythagoras wrote nothing.” It also says that Diogenes’ account (VIII.24–33) rests on “the Pythagorean Memoirs excerpted by Alexander Polyhistor, which are a forgery dating sometime around 200 BCE” (SEP ↗).
  • A search of Quote Investigator for “virtue is harmony” returned no article, so Wikiquote is the specialist anchor for this line.
Public domain

The exact English wording is R. D. Hicks’s translation of Diogenes Laërtius, first published in 1925 (Perseus, Hicks text (edition line at foot) ↗). It was published before 1931, so it is in the public domain in the United States. C. D. Yonge’s older rendering (Project Gutenberg ↗) is public domain as well.

This reflects the original work, which is public domain. If your exact English wording comes from a specific modern translation, that translation may itself still be under copyright — check the edition you quote.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

Why it gets pinned on Pythagoras

Quote sites present “Virtue is harmony” as something Pythagoras said. But the only ancient source for it reports a doctrine of his school, passed on at third hand.

Pythagoras Not his own words

Pythagoras wrote no books, and no record from his lifetime gives this saying. Diogenes Laërtius gives it as a tenet that Alexander “found in the Pythagorean memoirs” (Lives 8.33, tr. Hicks ↗). Wikiquote files it under Disputed for this reason (Wikiquote ↗).

The “Pythagorean Memoirs” Pseudo-Pythagorean text

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy calls these memoirs, excerpted by Alexander Polyhistor, “a forgery dating sometime around 200 BCE” that assigns “not just Platonic but also Stoic ideas to Pythagoras” (SEP ↗).

“Virtue is harmony” is a Pythagorean school tenet. It is preserved in Diogenes Laërtius 8.33 from the “Pythagorean memoirs”, and the exact English wording is R. D. Hicks’s 1925 translation (Perseus ↗). It is not a recorded saying of Pythagoras himself.

Context

Why harmony mattered to the Pythagoreans

The same passage applies harmony to everything: virtue, health, the good and God are all called harmony, “this is why they say that all things are constructed according to the laws of harmony,” and friendship is “concord and equality.” The idea that order and goodness come from proportion is typical of the Pythagorean tradition. That is why the line sounds like Pythagoras, even though the text it comes from was written in his name long after him.

Virtue is harmony, and so are health and all good and God himself.

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Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Character Wisdom

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Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Wikiquote: Pythagoras (Disputed)en.wikiquote.org

Lists “Virtue is harmony” as disputed and traces it to Diogenes Laërtius, with the Yonge translation.
Diogenes Laertius VIII, tr. R. D. Hicksperseus.tufts.edu

The full English text of 8.24–33, with Hicks’s note on Alexander Polyhistor.
Diogenes Laertius VIII, Greek textperseus.tufts.edu

The Greek original of 8.33: την τ’ αρετην αρμονιαν ειναι.
Lives and Opinions, tr. C. D. Yongegutenberg.org

Yonge’s older translation, which gives the line as “virtue is harmony, and health, and universal good, and God.”
Stanford Encyclopedia: Pythagorasplato.stanford.edu

Scholarly overview: Pythagoras wrote nothing, and the Pythagorean Memoirs are a forgery from around 200 BCE.

The credited author

About Pythagoras

Pythagoras

c. 570 – c. 490 BC · Greek philosopher of Samos and Croton

Pythagoras was one of the most famous and most argued-over early Greek philosophers. He spent his early years on Samos and later moved to Croton in southern Italy, where most of his philosophical work took place. He wrote nothing, and no one in his own lifetime wrote a detailed account of his thought. In the centuries after him, much later Pythagorean writing was credited to him, which is why so many “Pythagoras quotes” are really school doctrine or later inventions.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Earliest documented in

Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, 8.33, translated by R. D. Hicks (London: Heinemann; New York: Putnam, 1925; Loeb Classical Library 185), reporting a tenet from “the Pythagorean memoirs” via Alexander’s Successions of Philosophers.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Virtue is harmony’?” Last verified 3 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/virtue-is-harmony/

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