Diogenes Quotes

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

Aristotle was once asked what those who tell lies gain by it. Said he - That when they speak truth they are not believed.

One original thought is worth a thousand mindless quotings

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

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.

I am looking for an honest man.

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

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 health and vigor necessary for the practice of what is good, depend equally on both mind and body.

When two friends part they should lock up each other's secrets and exchange keys. The truly noble mind has no resentments.

Calumny is only the noise of madmen.

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

The most beautiful thing in the world is freedom of speech.

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

Protagoras asserted that there are two sides to every question, exactly opposite to each other.

If only it was as easy to banish hunger by rubbing the belly as it is to masturbate.

No man is hurt but by himself.

You will become a teacher of yourself when for the same things that you blame others, you also blame yourself.

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

Poverty is a virtue which one can teach oneself.

We are more curious about the meaning of dreams than about things we see when awake.

I like best the wine drunk at the cost of others.

I am looking for a human.

As houses well stored with provisions are likely to be full of mice, so the bodies of those that eat much are full of diseases.

There is a false love that will make you something you are not.

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

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

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

The mob is the mother of tyrants.

If you are to be kept right, you must possess either good friends or red-hot enemies. The one will warn you, the other will expose you.

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

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 question was put to him, what hope is; and his answer was, "The dream of a waking man."

If I lack awareness, then why should I care what happens to me when I am dead?

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

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?

We come into the world alone and we die alone. Why, in life, should we be any less alone?

The only way to gall and fret effectively is for yourself to be a good and honest man.

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

Even if I am but a pretender to wisdom, that in itself is philosophy.

Blushing is the color of virtue.

Education gives sobriety to the young, comfort to the old, riches to the poor and is an ornament to the rich.

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.

Discourse on virtue and they pass by in droves. Whistle and dance the shimmy, and you've got an audience.

Love comes with hunger.

By worrying as little as possible about fame.

People who talk well but do nothing are like musical intruments; the sound is all they have to offer.