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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