Diogenes Quotes

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

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

The mob is the mother of tyrants.

A friend is one soul abiding in two bodies.

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

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

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

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.

No man is hurt but by himself. …Literally by how he interprets what happens to him. If he focusses on how it could have been better, he will be hurt. If he focusses on how it could have been worse, he will be happy. The same is true for women too.

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.

I pissed on the man who called me a dog. Why was he so surprised?

Stand a little less between me and the sun.

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

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

He lit a lamp in broad daylight and said, as he went about, “I am looking for a human.”

There is only a finger’s difference between a wise man and a fool.

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