Diogenes of Sinope Quotes

33 Sourced Quotes

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

Diogenes of Sinope
It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours.

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

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

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

Diogenes of Sinope
Aristotle dines when it seems good to King Philip, but Diogenes when he himself pleases.

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

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

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
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
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
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
Virtue cannot dwell with wealth either in a city or in a house.

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
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
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
When asked by Alexander if he wanted anything:
Stand a little out of my sun.

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

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
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