Diogenes Quotes - Page 4

Love comes with hunger.

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.

The Sun visits cesspools without being defiled.

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.

The chief good is the suspension of the judgment [especially negative judgement], which tranquillity of mind follows like its shadow.

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

To Xeniades, who had purchased Diogenes at the slave market, he said, "Come, see that you obey orders."

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

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.

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

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.

Ability in man is an apt good, if it be applied to good ends.

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."

The great thieves lead away the little thief.

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

I am looking for a human.

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

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.

Wise leaders generally have wise counselors because it takes a wise person themselves to distinguish them.

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

Asked where he came from, he said, "I am a citizen of the world."

By worrying as little as possible about fame.

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

Good men nowhere, but good boys at Sparta.

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