Laërtius' main sources were Favorinus and Diocles of Magnesia, but his work also draws (either directly or indirectly) on books by Antisthenes of Rhodes, Alexander Polyhistor, and Demetrius of Magnesia, as well as works by Hippobotus, Aristippus, Panaetius, Apollodorus of Athens, Sosicrates, Satyrus, Sotion, Neanthes, Hermippus, Antigonus, Heraclides, Hieronymus, and Pamphila.
The Stoics provides fascinating insight into the private lives of the Greek Stoics, giving a voice to those early, important Stoic thinkers whose influential works have long since been lost.
Montaigne wrote that he wished that instead of one Laërtius there had been a dozen.