Diogenes of Sinope Quotes

48 Sourced Quotes

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

Diogenes of Sinope
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
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
The noblest people are those despising wealth, learning, pleasure and life; esteeming above them poverty, ignorance, hardship and death.

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

Diogenes of Sinope
A man should live with his superiors as he does with his fire: not too near, lest he burn; nor too far off, lest he freeze.

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

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

Diogenes of Sinope
Boasting, like gilded armour, is very different inside from outside.

Diogenes of Sinope
Being asked where in Greece he saw good men, he replied, "'Good men nowhere, but good boys at Sparta.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Diogenes of Sinope
I do not know whether there are gods, but there ought to be.

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

Diogenes of Sinope
When scolded for masturbating in public, he said "I wish it were as easy to banish hunger by rubbing my belly."

Diogenes of Sinope
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 of Sinope