Diogenes of Sinope - Diogenes Quotes

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

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
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