Diogenes Quotes

In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face. ~ Diogenes

Young men not ought to marry yet, and old men never ought to marry at all. ~ Diogenes

If your cloak was a gift, I appreciate it; if it was a loan, I'm not through with it yet. ~ Diogenes

Diogenes, in his mud-covered sandals, tramps over the carpets of Aristippus. The cynic pullulated at every corner, and in the highest places. This cynic did nothing but saboter the civilisation of the time. He was the nihilist of Hellenism. He created nothing, he made nothing. His role was to undo - or rather to attempt to undo, for he did not succeed in his purpose. The cynic, a parasite of civilisation, lives by denying it, for the very reason that he is convinced that it will not fail. What would become of the cynic among a savage people where everyone, naturally and quite seriously, fulfils what the cynic farcically considers to be his personal role? ~ Jose Ortega Y Gasset

Plato had defined Man as an animal, biped and featherless, and was applauded. Diogenes plucked a fowl and brought it into the lecture-room with the words, Here is Plato's man. ~ Diogenes

I like best the wine drunk at the cost of others. ~ Diogenes

When Alexander the Great addressed him with greetings, and asked if he wanted anything, Diogenes replied Yes, stand a little out of my sunshine . ~ Diogenes

If only it was as easy to banish hunger by rubbing the belly as it is to masturbate. ~ Diogenes

Nothing can be produced out of nothing. ~ Diogenes

When the slave auctioneer asked in what he was proficient, he replied, In ruling people . ~ Diogenes

I am called a dog because I fawn on those who give me anything, I yelp at those who refuse, and I set my teeth in rascals. ~ Diogenes

From Hunayn ibn-Ishak (Diogenes,8), we learn about his view of women and education: when he saw a man teaching a girl how to read and write, he advised him not to make a bad thing even worse. ~ Luis E. Navia

Asked where he came from, he said, I am a citizen of the world . ~ Diogenes

Diogenes carried a bowl with him for years, but one day saw a man drinking from his cupped palm and declared, 'I have been a fool, burdened all these years by the weight of a bowl when a perfectly good vessel lay at the end of my wrist. ~ Christopher Moore

When Alexander the Great visited the philosopher Diogenes and asked whether he could do anything for him, Diogenes is said to have replied: 'Yes, stand a little less between me and the sun.' It is what every citizen is entitled to ask of his government. ~ Henry Hazlitt

The mountains too, at a distance, appear airy masses and smooth, but seen near at hand they are rough. ~ Diogenes Laertius

The Sun visits cesspools without being defiled. ~ Diogenes

Man is the most intelligent of the animals - and the most silly. ~ Diogenes

He lit a lamp in broad daylight and said, as he went about, I am looking for a human . ~ Diogenes

When some one boasted that at the Pythian games he had vanquished men, Diogenes replied, Nay, I defeat men, you defeat slaves . ~ Diogenes

He believed hunger to be the best appetizer, and because he waited until he was hungry or thirsty before he ate or drank, "he used to partake of a barley cake with greater pleasure than others did of the costliest of foods, and enjoyed a drink from a stream of running water more than others did their Thasian wine."6 When asked about his lack of an abode, Diogenes would reply that he had access to the greatest houses in every city - to their temples and gymnasia, that is. And when asked what he had learned from philosophy, Diogenes replied, "To be prepared for every fortune."7 This reply, as we shall see, anticipates one important theme of Stoicism. The ~ William B. Irvine

Poverty is a virtue which one can teach oneself. ~ Diogenes Of Sinope

I pissed on the man who called me a dog. Why was he so surprised? ~ Diogenes

To become self-educated you should condemn yourself for all those things that you would criticize others. ~ Diogenes

And then comes the realization. That although a house was taken from you, you can still build a home in a wine jar. ~ Camilo Garzon

When people laughed at him because he walked backward beneath the portico, he said to them: Aren't you ashamed, you who walk backward along the whole path of existence, and blame me for walking backward along the path of the promenade? ~ Diogenes Of Sinope

True contentment depends not upon what we have; a tub was large enough for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexander. ~ Charles Caleb Colton

Why not whip the teacher when the pupil misbehaves? ~ Diogenes

What I like to drink most is wine that belongs to others. ~ Diogenes

What slave work do you want me to do for you?" asked Diogenes when he had been bought.

"Be a teacher to my children," answered Xeniades with the insanity that matched the wisdom of Diogenes. ~ Tomichan Matheikal

Though Diogenes lived in a tub, there might be, for aught I know, as much pride under his rags, as in the fine-spun garments of the divine Plato. ~ Jonathan Swift

We need to stop the little girl," said Richard "pass me that shotgun. ~ Kim Newman

But who are they that for no other reason but that they were weary of life have hastened their own fate? Were they not the next neighbors to wisdom? among whom, to say nothing of Diogenes, Xenocrates, Cato, Cassius, Brutus, that wise man Chiron, being offered immortality, chose rather to die than be troubled with the same thing always. ~ Erasmus

When asked what was the proper time for supper: If you are a rich man, whenever you please; and if you are a poor man, whenever you can. ~ Diogenes

Every age, and especially our own, stands in need of a Diogenes; but the difficulty is in finding men who have the courage to be one, and men who have the patience to endure one. ~ Jean Le Rond D'Alembert

but because she had at once classed him in that catalogue of bipeds whom Plato endeavors to withdraw from the appellation of men, and whom Diogenes designated as animals upon two legs without feathers. Unfortunately, ~ Alexandre Dumas

Most men are within a finger's breadth of being mad. ~ Diogenes

Since then her life had been peaceful and happy. She had allowed herself to be worshipped by that strangely captivating lover of hers, whose passionately willful temperament, tempered by that persistent, sunny gaiety, she had up to now only half understood. ~ Emmuska Orczy

Which of us would not have been happy under Alexander's radiant gaze? But Diogenes frantically begged him to move out of the way of the sun. That tub was full of ghosts. ~ Franz Kafka

The request of industry to government is as modest as that of Diogenes to Alexander: Get out of my light. ~ Jeremy Bentham

The sun, too, shines into cesspools and is not polluted. ~ Diogenes

Other dogs bite only their enemies, whereas I bite also my friends in order to save them. ~ Diogenes

One day, observing a child drinking out of his hands, he cast away the cup from his wallet with the words, A child has beaten me in plainness of living. ~ Diogenes

Were I Diogenes, I would not move out of a kilderkin into a hogshead, though the first had had nothing but small beer in it, and the second reeked claret. ~ Charles Lamb

Dogs and philosophers do the greatest good and get the fewest rewards. ~ Diogenes Of Sinope

The chief good is the suspension of the judgment [especially negative judgement], which tranquillity of mind follows like its shadow. ~ Diogenes

The health and vigor necessary for the practice of what is good, depend equally on both mind and body. ~ Diogenes

Thales said there was no difference between life and death. Why, then, said some one to him, do not you die? Because, said he, it does make no difference. ~ Diogenes Laertius

Man is the most intelligent of animals
and the most silly. ~ Diogenes Laertius

A vine bears three grapes, the first of pleasure, the second of drunkenness, and the third of repentance. ~ Diogenes Laertius

He once begged alms of a statue, and, when asked why he did so, replied, To get practice in being refused. ~ Diogenes

Time is the image of eternity. ~ Diogenes Laertius

Education gives sobriety to the young, comfort to the old, riches to the poor and is an ornament to the rich. ~ Diogenes

No man is hurt but by himself ... Literally by how he interprets what happens to him. If he focusses on how it could have been better, he will be hurt. If he focusses on how it could have been worse, he will be happy. The same is true for women too. ~ Diogenes

Calumny is only the noise of madmen. ~ Diogenes

Thales was asked what was very difficult; he said: To know one's self. ~ Diogenes Laertius

Utopias travel about underground, in the pipes. There they branch out in every direction. They sometimes meet, and fraternize there. Jean-Jacques lends his pick to Diogenes, who lends him his lantern. Sometimes they enter into combat there. Calvin seizes Socinius by the hair. But nothing arrests nor interrupts the tension of all these energies toward the goal, and the vast, simultaneous activity, which goes and comes, mounts, descends, and mounts again in these obscurities, and which immense unknown swarming slowly transforms the top and the bottom and the inside and the outside. Society hardly even suspects this digging which leaves its surface intact and changes its bowels. There are as many different subterranean stages as there are varying works, as there are extractions. What emerges from these deep excavations? The future. ~ Victor Hugo

There is only a finger's difference between a wise man and a fool. ~ Diogenes

She had seen them in turmoil all round her
love, hatred, vengeance, treachery
she herself practically the pivot around which they raged. Out of the deadly strife she had emerged pure, happy in the arms of the man whom her wondrous adventures as much as his brilliant personality had taught her to love. ~ Emmuska Orczy

To Xeniades, who had purchased Diogenes at the slave market, he said, Come, see that you obey orders. ~ Diogenes

Of what am I guilty," once exclaimed Antisthenes, "that I should be praised? ~ Diogenes Laertius

Your conscience troubles you unnecessarily, and you see a deliberate intention in every simple act. ~ Emmuska Orczy

The great thieves lead away the little thief. ~ Diogenes

I am Diogenes the Dog. I nuzzle the kind, bark at the greedy and bite scoundrels. ~ Diogenes

Hers was the perfect love that dwells on the other's happiness, and not on its own. She knew that, though for the time being he would find bliss and oblivion in her arms, he would soon repine in inactivity whilst others fought for that which he held sublime. ~ Emmuska Orczy

Every good quality runs into a defect; economy borders on avarice, the generous are not far from the prodigal, the brave man is close to the bully; he who is very pious is slightly sanctimonious; there are just as many vices to virtue as there are holes in the mantle of Diogenes. ~ Victor Hugo

We come into the world alone and we die alone. Why, in life, should we be any less alone? ~ Diogenes

When Diogenes came to Olympia and perceived some Rhodian youths dressed with great splendor and magnificence, he said with a smile of contempt, "This is all arrogance." Afterwards some Lacedemonians came in his way, as mean and as sordid in their attire as the dress of the others was rich. "This," said he, "is also arrogance. ~ Claudius Aelianus

Diogenes, filthily attired, paced across the splendid carpets in Plato's dwelling. Thus, said he, do I trample on the pride of Plato. Yes, Plato replied, but only with another kind of pride. ~ Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

One original thought is worth a thousand mindless quotings. ~ Diogenes Laertius

Discourse on virtue and they pass by in droves. Whistle and dance and shimmy, and you've got an audience! ~ Diogenes Laertius

When he saw the child of some prostitute throw stones at a crowd, Diogenes shouted to him, "Take care that you don't hit your father! ~ Luis E. Navia

Antisthenes used to say that envious people were devoured by their own disposition, just as iron is by rust. Envy of others comes from comparing what they have with what the envious person has, rather than the envious person realising they have more than what they could have and certainly more than some others and being grateful. It is really just an inability to get a correct perspective on their lives. ~ Diogenes

Alexander the Great found the philosopher looking attentively at a pile of human bones. Diogenes explained, I am searching for the bones of your father but cannot distinguish them from those of a slave. ~ Diogenes Of Sinope

I have nothing to ask but that you would remove to the other side, that you may not, by intercepting the sunshine, take from me what you cannot give. ~ Diogenes Of Sinope

The sun too penetrates into privies, but is not polluted by them. ~ Diogenes

The question was put to him, what hope is; and his answer was, "The dream of a waking man." ~ Diogenes

Science Class

Would you invent some irrational explanation for we lost souls that the glaciers aren't really melting at all, that they are and will remain just as they always have been? Some rationale that claims the whole climate change scenario is really just a satanic plot, concocted by liberal secular humanists to trick the world into thinking that the glaciers have been melting for twice as long as the Bible says the Earth has been around. ~ Diogenes Of Mayberry

The art of being a slave is to rule one's master. ~ Diogenes Of Sinope

Diogenes the Cynic was an ascetic by choice. He rejected his family's bourgeois status, got himself exiled from his native city, and went about in a threadbare cloak with only the barest possessions, a bag for his crust of bread and a cup for scooping water from fountains. When one day he saw a boy drinking from his hands, he smashed the cup, disgusted by his own love of luxury. ~ James Romm

Aristotle is the last Greek philosopher who faces the world cheerfully; after him, all have, in one form or another, a philosophy of retreat. The world is bad; let us learn to be independent of it. External goods are precarious; they are the gift of fortune, not the reward of our own efforts. Only subjective goods - virtue, or contentment through resignation - are secure, and these alone, therefore, will be valued by the wise man. Diogenes personally was a man full of vigour, but his doctrine, like all those of the Hellenistic age, was one to appeal to weary men, in whom disappointment had destroyed natural zest. And it was certainly not a doctrine calculated to promote art or science or statesmanship, or any useful activity except one of protest against powerful evil. ~ Anonymous

The difference between bush and ladder also allows us to put a lid on a fruitless and boring debate. That debate is over what qualifies as True Language. One side lists some qualities that human language has but that no animal has yet demonstrated: reference, use of symbols displaced of in time and space from their referents, creativity, categorical speech perception, consistent ordering, hierarchical structure, infinity, recursion, and so on. The other side finds some counter-example in the animal kingdom (perhaps budgies can discriminate speech sounds, or dolphins or parrots can attend to word order when carrying out commands, or some songbird can improvise indefinitely without repeating itself), and gloats that the citadel of human uniqueness has been breached. The Human Uniqueness team relinquishes that criterion but emphasizes others or adds new ones to the list, provoking angry objections that they are moving the goalposts. To see how silly this all is, imagine a debate over whether flatworms have True Vision or houseflies have True Hands. Is an iris critical? Eyelashes? Fingernails? Who cares? This is a debate for dictionary-writers, not scientists. Plato and Diogenes were not doing biology when Plato defined man as a "featherless biped" and Diogenes refuted him with a plucked chicken. ~ Steven Pinker

He also said that he marvelled that among the Greeks, those who were skilful in a thing contend together; but those who have no such skill act as judges of the contest. ~ Diogenes Laertius

You will become a teacher of yourself when for the same things that you blame others, you also blame yourself. ~ Diogenes

That man does not possess his estate, but his estate possesses him. ~ Diogenes Laertius

The sacrifice of Diogenes to all the gods. ~ Diogenes

He was seized and dragged off to King Philip, and being asked who he was, replied, A spy upon your insatiable greed . ~ Diogenes

People who talk well but do nothing are like musical intruments; the sound is all they have to offer. ~ Diogenes

It was a favorite expression of Theophrastus that time was the most valuable thing that a man could spend. ~ Diogenes

Whichever you do, you will repent it. ~ Diogenes Laertius

Diogenes was asked what wine he liked best; and he answered as I would have done when he said, "Somebody else's". ~ Michel De Montaigne

Diogenes found more rest in his tub than Alexander on his throne. ~ Francis Quarles

To the question what wine he found pleasant to drink, he replied, That for which other people pay. ~ Diogenes

The Diogenes Club is the queerest club in London, and Mycroft one of the queerest men. He's always there from quarter to five to twenty to eight. It's six now, so if you care for a stroll this beautiful evening I shall be very happy to introduce you to two curiosities. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

Wise leaders generally have wise counselors because it takes a wise person themselves to distinguish them. ~ Diogenes

No man is hurt but by himself," said Diogenes. ~ Maxwell Maltz

Chilo advised, "not to speak evil of the dead." ~ Diogenes

Anaxagoras said to a man who was grieving because he lay dying in a foreign land, "The descent to hell is the same from every place. ~ Diogenes Laertius

Remember to act always as if you were at a symposium. When the food or drink comes around, reach out and take some politely; if it passes you by don't try pulling it back. And if it has not reached you yet, don't let your desire run ahead of you, be patient until your turn comes. Adopt a similar attitude with regard to children, wife, wealth and status, and in time, you will be entitled to dine with the gods. Go further and decline these goods even when they are on offer and you will have a share in the gods' power as well as their company. That is how Diogenes, Heraclitus and philosophers like them came to be called, and considered, divine. ~ Epictetus

To arrive at perfection, a man should have very sincere friends or inveterate enemies; because he would be made sensible of his good or ill conduct, either by the censures of the one or the admonitions of the other. ~ Diogenes