DIOGENES of Sinope

As written down by DIOGENES LAËRTIUS in “Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers”


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He lit a lamp in broad daylight and said, as he went about, "I am looking for a human." (This line is frequently translated as "I am looking for an honest man.")

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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."

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Alexander the Great found the philosopher looking attentively at a pile of human bones. Diogenes explained, "I am searching for the bones of your father but cannot distinguish them from those of a slave.

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I have nothing to ask but that you would remove to the other side, that you may not, by intercepting the sunshine, take from me what you cannot give.

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

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It is the privilege of the gods to want nothing, and of godlike men to want little.

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

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

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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?

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The art of being a slave is to rule one's master.

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A philosopher named Aristippus, who had quite willingly sucked up to Dionysus and won himself a spot at his court, saw Diogenes cooking lentils for a meal. "If you would only learn to compliment Dionysus, you wouldn't have to live on lentils."

Diogenes replied, "But if you would only learn to live on lentils, you wouldn't have to flatter Dionysus.

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No man is hurt but by himself.

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

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