1.
He has the most who is most content with the least.
Diogenes
He who is most satisfied with the least has the greatest fortune.
2.
We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less.
Diogenes
'We should employ our ears twice as much as we use our tongue.'
3.
I pissed on the man who called me a dog. Why was he so surprised?
Diogenes
I urinated on the individual who labeled me a canine. Why was he astonished?
4.
If only it was as easy to banish hunger by rubbing the belly as it is to masturbate.
Diogenes
5.
In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes
6.
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!"
Diogenes
7.
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.
Diogenes
8.
I am Diogenes the Dog. I nuzzle the kind, bark at the greedy and bite scoundrels.
Diogenes
9.
He lit a lamp in broad daylight and said, as he went about, "I am looking for a human."
Diogenes
10.
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.
Diogenes
11.
It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours.
Diogenes
12.
I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.
Diogenes
13.
One original thought is worth a thousand mindless quotings
Diogenes
14.
Education gives sobriety to the young, comfort to the old, riches to the poor and is an ornament to the rich.
Diogenes
15.
Blushing is the color of virtue.
Diogenes
16.
I am looking for an honest man.
Diogenes
17.
When Alexander the Great addressed him with greetings, and asked if he wanted anything, Diogenes replied "Yes, stand a little out of my sunshine."
Diogenes
18.
Self-taught poverty is a help toward philosophy, for the things which philosophy attempts to teach by reasoning, poverty forces us to practice.
Diogenes
19.
Dogs and philosophers do the greatest good and get the fewest rewards.
Diogenes
20.
We come into the world alone and we die alone. Why, in life, should we be any less alone?
Diogenes
21.
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."
Diogenes
22.
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.
Diogenes
23.
There is only a finger's difference between a wise man and a fool.
Diogenes
24.
Discourse on virtue and they pass by in droves. Whistle and dance the shimmy, and you've got an audience.
Diogenes
25.
Aristotle was once asked what those who tell lies gain by it. Said he - That when they speak truth they are not believed.
Diogenes
26.
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.
Diogenes
27.
He once begged alms of a statue, and, when asked why he did so, replied, "To get practice in being refused."
Diogenes
28.
We have complicated every simple gift of the gods.
Diogenes
29.
The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.
Diogenes
30.
You will become a teacher of yourself when for the same things that you blame others, you also blame yourself.
Diogenes
31.
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.
Diogenes
32.
Man is the most intelligent of the animals - and the most silly.
Diogenes
33.
Of what use is a philosopher who doesn't hurt anybody's feelings?
Diogenes
34.
Other dogs bite only their enemies, whereas I bite also my friends in order to save them.
Diogenes
35.
If your cloak was a gift, I appreciate it; if it was a loan, I'm not through with it yet.
Diogenes
36.
To the question what wine he found pleasant to drink, he replied, "That for which other people pay."
Diogenes
37.
On being asked by someone how he could become famous, Diogenes responded: 'By worrying as little as possible about fame
Diogenes
38.
Why not whip the teacher when the pupil misbehaves?
Diogenes
39.
The art of being a slave is to rule one's master.
Diogenes
40.
Young men not ought to marry yet, and old men never ought to marry at all.
Diogenes
41.
The sun, too, shines into cesspools and is not polluted.
Diogenes
42.
When the slave auctioneer asked in what he was proficient, he replied, "In ruling people."
Diogenes
43.
The mob is the mother of tyrants.
Diogenes
44.
It takes a wise man to discover a wise man.
Diogenes
45.
The question was put to him, what hope is; and his answer was, "The dream of a waking man."
Diogenes
46.
To Xeniades, who had purchased Diogenes at the slave market, he said, "Come, see that you obey orders."
Diogenes
47.
Wise kings generally have wise counselors; and he must be a wise man himself who is capable of distinguishing one.
Diogenes
48.
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?
Diogenes
49.
If I lack awareness, then why should I care what happens to me when I am dead?
Diogenes
50.
People who talk well but do nothing are like musical intruments; the sound is all they have to offer.
Diogenes
