Tao Te Ching
Diogenes
(of Sinope)
412 – 323 BCE
Exiled from his place of birth, Diogenes lived as a citizen of the world begging for food and sleeping in a big ceramic jar. Carrying a lamp during the day “looking for an honest man,” he publicly ridiculed Alexander the Great, sabotaged and embarrassed Plato, and was sold into slavery after being captured by pirates. He developed Cynicism and teachings that became Stoicism, one of the most influential philosophies of Greek culture. He criticized the artificialities of society and advocated simplicity and a return to nature. Referencing him in their works, he inspired many great literary figures including Chekhov, Blake, Goethe, Dostoevsky, Cervantes, Charlotte Brontë and Charles Dickens. Called by Plato ”Socrates gone mad,” his poetic spirit and lifestyle continued through the ages, manifested in modern times by people like Charles Bukowski, and embodied in stories like Jack Kerouac’s On the Road.
Eras
Western
Egyptian Civilization (3150 – 305 BCE)Greek Civilization (480 – 146 BCE)
The Axial Age, “The Great Leap of Being” (800 – 200 BCE)
Unlisted Sources
Lives of Philosophers
Quotes by Diogenes (16 quotes)
“It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours.”
Chapters:
18. The Sick Society
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“Of what use is a philosopher who doesn't hurt anybody's feelings?”
Chapters:
18. The Sick Society
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“When he saw temple officials arresting someone who had stolen a bowl from them, Diogenes said, "The great thieves are leading away the little thief."”
Chapters:
53. Shameless Thieves
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“I am a citizen of the world.”
Chapters:
78. Water
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“In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.”
Chapters:
53. Shameless Thieves
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“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.’”
from Life of Greece
Chapters:
13. Honor and Disgrace
4. The Father of All Things
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“It is the privilege of the gods to want nothing, and of godlike men to want little.”
from Life of Greece
Chapters:
20. Unconventional Mind
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“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?’”
from Life of Greece
Chapters:
41. Distilled Life
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“When some one reminded him that the people of Sinope had sentenced him to exile, he said, 'And I sentenced them to stay at home.'”
from Life of Greece
Chapters:
47. Effortless Success
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“Dogs and philosophers do the greatest good and get the fewest rewards.”
Chapters:
36. The Small, Dark Light
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“No man is hurt but by himself.”
Chapters:
63. Easy as Hard
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“Wise leaders generally have wise counselors because it takes a wise person themselves to distinguish them.”
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“Xenophon was a man of great modesty, and as handsome as can be imagined... Socrates met him in a narrow lane, prevented him from passing, asked him where men were made good and virtuous. Xenophon didn't know and Socrates said, 'Follow me then and learn.' From that time on, Xenophon was a follower of Socrates.”
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“The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance.”
from Lives of Philosophers
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“The mob is the mother of tyrants.”
from Lives of Philosophers
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“It is not profanity to deny the gods of the vulgar, but it is profanity to measure the gods by the opinions of the vulgar.”
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Quotes about Diogenes (8 quotes)
“There is no need to yearn, envy, and grab... Diogenes and Heraclitus were impeccable models of living by such principles rather than by raw impulse.”
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“No labor, according to Diogenes, is good but that which aims at producing courage and strength of soul rather than of body.”
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“Diogenes, a different person from him who became a cynic after having been a counterfeiter, asserted that the soul was a portion of the very substance of God, a notion which was at least striking.”
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“Diogenes, in his mud-covered sandals, tramps over the carpets of Aristippus. The cynic pullulated at every corner, and in the highest places. This cynic did nothing but sabotage the civilization of the time. He was the nihilist of Hellenism. He created nothing, he made nothing. His role was to undo — or rather to attempt to undo, for he did not succeed in his purpose.”
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“When Alexander the Great once visited Diogenes as he was relaxing in the sun and asked if there were anything he might do for him, the Cynic answered the all-powerful conqueror, 'Yes, there is something you can do for me. Please move a little to the side. You are blocking the sunlight.'”
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“Yesterday the wisest man holding a lit lantern in daylight was searching around town saying I am tired of all these beasts and brutes. I seek a true human. We have all looked for one but no one could be found they said. 'Yes,' he replied 'but my search is for the one who cannot be found.'”
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“Aristotle dines when it seems good to King Philip, but Diogenes when he himself pleases.
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