Diogenes Quotes

There is only a finger's difference between a wise man and a fool.

Self-taught poverty is a help toward philosophy, for the things which philosophy attempts to teach by reasoning, poverty forces us to practice.

Ability in man is an apt good, if it be applied to good ends.

Love comes with hunger.

Of what use is a philosopher who doesn't hurt anybody's feelings?

You will become a teacher of yourself when for the same things that you blame others, you also blame yourself.

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."

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

I am Diogenes the Dog. I nuzzle the kind, bark at the greedy and bite scoundrels.

If I lack awareness, then why should I care what happens to me when I am dead?

When some one boasted that at the Pythian games he had vanquished men, Diogenes replied, "Nay, I defeat men, you defeat slaves."

We come into the world alone and we die alone. Why, in life, should we be any less alone?

Wise kings generally have wise counselors; and he must be a wise man himself who is capable of distinguishing one.

The chief good is the suspension of the judgment [especially negative judgement], which tranquillity of mind follows like its shadow.

One original thought is worth a thousand mindless quotings

Even if I am but a pretender to wisdom, that in itself is philosophy.

Protagoras asserted that there are two sides to every question, exactly opposite to each other.

I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

If only it was as easy to banish hunger by rubbing the belly as it is to masturbate.

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

No man is hurt but by himself. ...Literally by how he interprets what happens to him. If he focusses on how it could have been better, he will be hurt. If he focusses on how it could have been worse, he will be happy. The same is true for women too.

The health and vigor necessary for the practice of what is good, depend equally on both mind and body.

To arrive at perfection, a man should have very sincere friends or inveterate enemies; because he would be made sensible of his good or ill conduct, either by the censures of the one or the admonitions of the other.

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!"

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."

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

Blushing is the color of virtue.

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

I like best the wine drunk at the cost of others.

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?

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.

Nothing can be produced out of nothing.

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."

To become self-educated you should condemn yourself for all those things that you would criticize others.

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

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

When Alexander the Great addressed him with greetings, and asked if he wanted anything, Diogenes replied "Yes, stand a little out of my sunshine."

Education gives sobriety to the young, comfort to the old, riches to the poor and is an ornament to the rich.

Young men not ought to marry yet, and old men never ought to marry at all.

Solon used to say that speech was the image of actions; . . . that laws were like cobwebs, - for that if any trifling or powerless thing fell into them, they held it fast; while if it were something weightier, it broke through them and was off.

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

The only way to gall and fret effectively is for yourself to be a good and honest man.

Calumny is only the noise of madmen.

Most men are within a finger's breadth of being mad.

There is a false love that will make you something you are not.

When two friends part they should lock up each other's secrets and exchange keys. The truly noble mind has no resentments.

The sun, too, shines into cesspools and is not polluted.

On being asked by someone how he could become famous, Diogenes responded: 'By worrying as little as possible about fame

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

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

Those who have virtue always in their mouths, and neglect it in practice, are like a harp, which emits a sound pleasing to others, while itself is insensible of the music.

As houses well stored with provisions are likely to be full of mice, so the bodies of those that eat much are full of diseases.

I am looking for an honest man.

The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.

Poverty is a virtue which one can teach oneself.

I am called a dog because I fawn on those who give me anything, I yelp at those who refuse, and I set my teeth in rascals.

It takes a wise man to discover a wise man.

I know nothing, except the fact of my ignorance.

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

Good men nowhere, but good boys at Sparta.