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Diogenes of Sinope
34 quotes
“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 of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Aristotle dines when it seems good to King Philip, but Diogenes when he himself pleases.”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you are to be kept right, you must possess either good friends or red-hot enemies. The one will warn you, the other will expose you.”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“On reaching Athens he fell in with Antisthenes. Being repulsed by him, because he never welcomed pupils, by sheer persistence Diogenes wore him out. Once when he stretched out his staff against him, the pupil offered his head with the words, "Strike, for you will find no wood hard enough to keep me away from you, so long as I think you've something to say.”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Being asked where in Greece he saw good men, he replied, "Good men nowhere, but good boys at Sparta.”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When some one boasted that at the Pythian games he had vanquished men, Diogenes replied, "Nay, I defeat men, you defeat slaves.”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To Xeniades, who had purchased Diogenes at the slave market, he said, "Come, see that you obey orders.”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He used to reason as follows: 'Everything belongs to the gods; the wise are friends of the gods; friends hold all things in common; ergo, everything belongs to the wise.'”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Diogenes Laërtius, vi. 37, as reported in Diogenes the Cynic: Sayings and Anecdotes as translated by Robin Hard (Oxford: 2012), p. 13
“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, "Behold Plato's man!”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To one who asked what was the proper time for lunch, he said, "If a rich man, when you will; if a poor man, when you can.”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He lit a lamp in broad daylight and said, as he went about, "I am looking for a human.”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He was seized and dragged off to King Philip, and being asked who he was, replied, "A spy upon your insatiable greed.”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Perdiccas threatened to put him to death unless he came to him, "That's nothing wonderful," Diogenes said, "for a beetle or a tarantula would do the same.”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Once he saw the officials of a temple leading away some one who had stolen a bowl belonging to the treasurers, and said, "The great thieves are leading away the little thief.”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When scolded for masturbating in public, he said "I wish it were as easy to banish hunger by rubbing my belly.”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Encarta Book of Quotations (2000) edited by Bill Swainson, p. 274
“When some one reminded him that the people of Sinope had sentenced him to exile, he said, "And I sentenced them to stay at home.”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He once begged alms of a statue, and, when asked why he did so, replied, "To get practice in being refused.”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To the question what wine he found pleasant to drink, he replied, "That for which other people pay.”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When asked why people give to beggars but not to philosophers, he replied, 'Because they expect they may become lame and blind, but never that they will become philosophers.'”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Diogenes Laërtius, vi. 56, as reported in Diogenes the Cynic: Sayings and Anecdotes as translated by Robin Hard (Oxford: 2012), p. 18
“He was breakfasting in the marketplace, and the bystanders gathered round him with cries of "dog." "It is you who are dogs," cried he, "when you stand round and watch me at my breakfast.”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Asked where he came from, he said, "I am a citizen of the world.”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He was going into a theatre, meeting face to face those who were coming out, and being asked why, "This," he said, "is what I practise doing all my life.”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When the slave auctioneer asked in what he was proficient, he replied, "In ruling people.”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours.”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“οἱ μὲν ἄλλοι κύνες τοὺς ἐχθροὺς δάκνουσιν, ἐγὼ δὲ τοὺς φίλους, ἵνα σώσω.”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Boasting, like gilded armour, is very different inside from outside.”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The noblest people are those despising wealth, learning, pleasure and life; esteeming above them poverty, ignorance, hardship and death.”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Virtue cannot dwell with wealth either in a city or in a house.”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Self-taught poverty is a help toward philosophy, for the things which philosophy attempts to teach by reasoning, poverty forces us to practice.”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Poverty is a virtue which one can teach oneself.”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Diogenes the cynic, seeing one of the so-called freedmen pluming himself, while many heartily congratulated him, marveled at the absence of reason and discernment. “A man might as well,” he said, “proclaim that one of his servants became a grammarian, a geometrician, or musician, when he has no idea whatever of the art.” For as the proclamation cannot make them men of knowledge, so neither can it make them free.”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Philo, Every Good Man is Free, F. H. Colson, trans. (1941), 157
Also quoted by: Philo
“Thieves and fighters do not come from eaters of barley-bread; but informers and tyrants come from meat-eaters.”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Porphyry, On Abstinence from Killing Animals as translated by Gillian Clark (2000), 1, 47, 3