Diogenes Quotes

He has the most who is most content with the least.

Diogenes

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

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

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.
Diogenes

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

We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less.
Diogenes

The great thieves lead away the little thief.
Diogenes

It takes a wise man to discover a wise man.
Diogenes

I know nothing, except the fact of my ignorance.
Diogenes

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.
Diogenes

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

Blushing is the color of virtue.
Diogenes

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

I do not know whether there are gods, but there ought to be.
Diogenes

The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.
Diogenes

Stand a little less between me and the sun.
Diogenes

A friend is one soul abiding in two bodies.
Diogenes

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

Wise kings generally have wise counselors; and he must be a wise man himself who is capable of distinguishing one.
Diogenes

Those who have virtue always in their mouths, and neglect it in practice, are like a harp, which emits a sound pleasing to others, while itself is insensible of the music.
Diogenes




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

What I like to drink most is wine that belongs to others.
Diogenes

The sun, too, shines into cesspools and is not polluted.
Diogenes

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

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.
Diogenes

The mob is the mother of tyrants.
Diogenes

The sun too penetrates into privies, but is not polluted by them.
Diogenes

The vine bears three kinds of grapes: the first of pleasure, the second of intoxication, the third of disgust.
Diogenes