Diogenes Quotes

We have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen more than we say.

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.

Time is the most valuable thing that a man can spend.

It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours.

Of what use is a philosopher who doesn't hurt anybody's feelings?

In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.

The philosopher Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king. Said Aristippus, 'If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.' Said Diogenes, 'Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king".

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

When Alexander the Great visited the philosopher Diogenes and asked whether he could do anything for him, Diogenes is said to have replied: ‘Yes, stand a little less between me and the sun.’ It is what every citizen is entitled to ask of his government.

I am a citizen of the world.

A philosopher named Aristippus, who had quite willingly sucked up to Dionysus and won himself a spot at his court, saw Diogenes cooking lentils for a meal. "If you would only learn to compliment Dionysus, you wouldn't have to live on lentils." Diogenes replied, "But if you would only learn to live on lentils, you wouldn't have to flatter Dionysus.

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

It takes a wise man to discover a wise man.

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

One original thought is worth a thousand mindless quotings.

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.

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.

Blushing is the color of virtue.

We have two ears and only one tongue in order that we may hear more and speak less.

There are many men in London, you know, who, some from shyness, some from misanthropy, have no wish for the company of their fellows. Yet they are not averse to comfortable chairs and the latest periodicals. It is for the convenience of these that the Diogenes Club was started, and it now contains the most unsociable and unclubbable men in town. No member is permitted to take the least notice of any other one. Save in the Stranger's Room, no talking is, under any circumstances, allowed, and three offenses, if brought to the notice of the committee, render the talker liable to expulsion. My brother was one of the founders, and I have myself found it a very soothing atmosphere.