Best 83 quotes of Diogenes on MyQuotes

A friend is one soul abiding in two bodies.

All things are in common among friends.

Antisthenes used to say that envious people were devoured by their own disposition, just as iron is by rust. Envy of others comes from comparing what they have with what the envious person has, rather than the envious person realising they have more than what they could have and certainly more than some others and being grateful. It is really just an inability to get a correct perspective on their lives.

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?

Aristotle dines when it seems good to King Philip, but Diogenes when he himself pleases.

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

As a matter of self-preservation, a man needs good friends or ardent enemies, for the former instruct him and the latter take him to task.

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.

Being asked where in Greece he saw good men, he replied, "Good men nowhere, but good boys at Sparta.

Blushing is the color of virtue.

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

By worrying as little as possible about fame.

Democritus says, "But we know nothing really; for truth lies deep down".

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

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

Even if I am but a pretender to wisdom, that in itself is philosophy.

Fools! You think of "god" as a sentient being. God is the word used to represent a force. This force created nothing, it just helps things along. It does not answer prayers, although it may make you think of a way to solve a problem. It has the power to influence you, but not decide for you.

Good men nowhere, but good boys at Sparta.

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

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.

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

I am called a dog because I fawn on those who give me anything, I yelp at those who refuse, and I set my teeth in rascals.

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

I am looking for an honest man.

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

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

If only it was as easy to banish hunger by rubbing the belly as it is to masturbate.

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.

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

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.

I like best the wine drunk at the cost of others.

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

I threw my cup away when I saw a child drinking from his hands at the trough.

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

It was a favorite expression of Theophrastus that time was the most valuable thing that a man could spend.

Lust is a strong tower of mischief, and hath in it many defenders, as neediness, anger, paleness, discord, love, and longing.

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

Most men are within a finger's breadth of being mad.

No man is hurt but by himself. ...Literally by how he interprets what happens to him. If he focusses on how it could have been better, he will be hurt. If he focusses on how it could have been worse, he will be happy. The same is true for women too.

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

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.

One original thought is worth a thousand mindless quotings

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

Perdiccas threatened to put him to death unless he came to him, "That's nothing wonderful," Diogenes said, "for a beetle or a tarantula would do the same.

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!

Poverty is a virtue which one can teach oneself.

Protagoras asserted that there are two sides to every question, exactly opposite to each other.

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

Solon used to say that speech was the image of actions; . . . that laws were like cobwebs, - for that if any trifling or powerless thing fell into them, they held it fast; while if it were something weightier, it broke through them and was off.

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