Diogenes of Sinope Quotes

48 Sourced Quotes

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

Diogenes of Sinope
Discourse on virtue and they pass by in droves. Whistle and dance the shimmy, and you've got an audience.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Diogenes of Sinope
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
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
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
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