Diogenes of Sinope Quotes

οἱ μὲν ἄλλοι κύνες τοὺς ἐχθροὺς δάκνουσιν, ἐγὼ δὲ τοὺς φίλους, ἵνα σώσω.

To one who asked what was the proper time for lunch, he said, "If a rich man, when you will; if a poor man, when you can."

Thieves and fighters do not come from eaters of barley-bread; but informers and tyrants come from meat-eaters.

When scolded for masturbating in public, he said "I wish it were as easy to banish hunger by rubbing my belly."

I fawn on those who give me anything, I yelp at those who refuse, and I set my teeth in rascals.

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

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

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

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."

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

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

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?"

Boasting, like gilded armour, is very different inside from outside.

On reaching Athens he fell in with Antisthenes. Being repulsed by him, because he never welcomed pupils, by sheer persistence Diogenes wore him out. Once when he stretched out his staff against him, the pupil offered his head with the words, "Strike, for you will find no wood hard enough to keep me away from you, so long as I think you've something to say."

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."