Quotes by Diogenes of Sinope
“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.’”
“Dogs and philosophers do the greatest good and get the fewest rewards.”
“He has the most who is content with the least.”
“I threw my cup away when I saw a child drinking from his hands at the trough.”
“Man is the most intelligent of the animals — and the most silly.”
“[Diogenes] believed hunger to be the best appetizer, and because he waited until he was hungry or thirsty before he ate or drank, ‘he used to partake of a barley cake with greater pleasure than others did of the costliest of foods, and enjoyed a drink from a stream of running water more than others did their Thasian wine.’” — William B. Irvine, A Guide to the Good Life
“It is the privilege of the gods to want nothing, and of godlike men to want little.
“I am a citizen of the world.”
“The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.”
“It takes a wise man to discover a wise man.”
“Poverty is a virtue which one can teach oneself.”
“No man is hurt but by himself.”
“And when asked what he had learned from philosophy, Diogenes replied, ‘To be prepared for every fortune.’” — William B. Irvine, A Guide to the Good Life