Diogenes Quotes

We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less.

He has the most who is most content with the least.

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

In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.

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!"

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

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

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

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

One original thought is worth a thousand mindless quotings

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

Blushing is the color of virtue.

I am looking for an honest man.

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

Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.

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

Dogs and philosophers do the greatest good and get the fewest rewards.

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

He was breakfasting in the marketplace, and the bystanders gathered round him with cries of "dog." "It is you who are dogs," cried he, "when you stand round and watch me at my breakfast."

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

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

When I look upon seamen, men of science and philosophers, man is the wisest of all beings; when I look upon priests and prophets nothing is as contemptible as man.

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.

Aristotle was once asked what those who tell lies gain by it. Said he - That when they speak truth they are not believed.

We have complicated every simple gift of the gods.

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

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

Man is the most intelligent of the animals - and the most silly.

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

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.

If your cloak was a gift, I appreciate it; if it was a loan, I'm not through with it yet.

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

Other dogs bite only their enemies, whereas I bite also my friends in order to save them.

To the question what wine he found pleasant to drink, he replied, "That for which other people pay."

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

Why not whip the teacher when the pupil misbehaves?

Courage, my boy! that is the complexion of virtue.

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

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

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

When the slave auctioneer asked in what he was proficient, he replied, "In ruling people."

It takes a wise man to discover a wise man.

The question was put to him, what hope is; and his answer was, "The dream of a waking man."

The mob is the mother of tyrants.

To Xeniades, who had purchased Diogenes at the slave market, he said, "Come, see that you obey orders."

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

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

The Sun visits cesspools without being defiled.

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

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?