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Diogenes of Sinope Quotes
412 BC–323 BC Greece
Diogenes of Sinope (or Diogenes the Cynic; c. 412 BC – 323 BC) was the most famous of the Cynic philosophers of ancient Greece. No writings of his survive, but his sayings are recorded by Diogenes Laërtius and others.
Also known as: Diogenes the Cynic, Diogenes the cynic
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37 quotes
When scolded for masturbating in public, he said "I wish it were as easy to banish hunger by rubbing my belly."
Boasting, like gilded armour, is very different inside from outside.
I wish it were as easy to banish hunger by rubbing the belly.
Aristotle dines when it seems good to King Philip, but Diogenes when he himself pleases.
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.'
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.
To the question what wine he found pleasant to drink, he replied, "That for which other people pay."
To Xeniades, who had purchased Diogenes at the slave market, he said, "Come, see that you obey orders."
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.'
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!"
Being asked where in Greece he saw good men, he replied, "Good men nowhere, but good boys at Sparta."
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."
He pointed to a certain Corinthian with a fine purple border to his robe ... and said, “Sell me to this man; he needs a master.”
Diogenes ... saw the officials of a temple leading away someone who had stolen a bowl belonging to the treasurers, and said, "The great thieves are leading away the little thief."
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."
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?"
One original thought is worth a thousand mindless quotings.
Attributed William Safire (2001)
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