25 Quotes By Diogenes The Cynic That Will Make You Think

Dogs and philosophers do the greatest good and get the fewest rewards. I pissed on the man who called me a dog. Why was he so surprised? If only it was as easy to banish hunger by rubbing the belly as it is to masturbate. Of what use is a philosopher who doesn't hurt anybody's feelings? Even if I am but a pretender to wisdom, that in itself is philosophy. 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. A friend is one soul abiding in two bodies. The art of being a slave is to rule one's master. Young men not ought to marry yet, and old men never ought to marry at all. No man is hurt but by himself. Most men are within a finger's breadth of being mad. We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less. To one who asked what was the proper time for lunch, he said, if a rich man, when you will, if a poor man, where you can. In a rich man's house, there is no place to spit but his face. He has the most who is most content with the least. You will become a teacher of yourself when for the same things that you blame others, you also blame yourself. The foundation of every state is the education of its youth. Aristotle was once asked what those who tell lies gain by it. Said he, that when they speak truth they are not believed. There is only a finger's difference between a wise man and a fool. It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours. What I like to drink most is wine that belongs to others. We come into the world alone and we die alone. Why, in life, should we be any less alone? 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. When someone reminded him that the people of Sinope had sentenced him to exile, he said, and I sentenced them to stay at home. 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.