Skip to content
- “Wise leaders generally have wise counselors because it takes a wise person themselves to distinguish them.” – Diogenes
- “A friend is one soul abiding in two bodies.” – Diogenes
- “Of what use is a philosopher who doesn’t hurt anybody’s feelings?” – Diogenes
- “Man is the most intelligent of the animals – and the most silly.” – Diogenes
- “It was a favorite expression of Theophrastus that time was the most valuable thing that a man could spend.” – Diogenes
- “I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.” – Diogenes
- “The great thieves lead away the little thief.” – 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
- “I do not know whether there are gods, but there ought to be.” – 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
- “He has the most who is most content with the least.” – Diogenes
- “The mob is the mother of tyrants.” – 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
- “In a rich man’s house there is no place to spit but his face.” – Diogenes
- “I threw my cup away when I saw a child drinking from his hands at the trough.” – Diogenes
- “I know nothing, except the fact of my ignorance.” – Diogenes
- “The sun too penetrates into privies, but is not polluted by them.” – Diogenes
- “No man is hurt but by himself.” – 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
- “The art of being a slave is to rule one’s master.” – Diogenes
- “What I like to drink most is wine that belongs to others.” – Diogenes
- “Most men are within a finger’s breadth of being mad.” – Diogenes
- “The sun, too, shines into cesspools and is not polluted.” – Diogenes
- “Why not whip the teacher when the pupil misbehaves?” – 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
- “The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.” – 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
- “Stand a little less between me and the sun.” – Diogenes
- “It takes a wise man to discover a wise man.” – Diogenes
- “Blushing is the color of virtue.” – Diogenes
- “There is only a finger’s difference between a wise man and a fool.” – Diogenes
- “We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less.” – Diogenes
- “Dogs and philosophers do the greatest good and get the fewest rewards.” – Diogenes
- “Modesty is the color of virtue.” – Diogenes
- “Calumny is only the noise of madmen.” – Diogenes