Diogenes Quotes
Protagoras asserted that there are two sides to every question, exactly opposite to each other.
Diogenes, when asked from what country he came, replied, "I am a citizen of the world."
He used to say that it was better to have one friend of great value than many friends who were good for nothing.
Antisthenes used to say that envious people were devoured by their own disposition, just as iron is by rust.
Aristippus being asked what were the most necessary things for well-born boys to learn, said, "Those things which they will put in practice when they become men.
Euripides says,-Who knows but that this life is really death,And whether death is not what men call life?
When asked what learning was the most necessary, he said, Not to unlearn what you have learned!
Thales said there was no difference between life and death. Why, then, said some one to him, do not you die? Because, said he, it does make no difference.
Apollodorus says, "If any one were to take away from the books of Chrysippus all the passages which he quotes from other authors, his paper would be left empty.
Heraclitus says that Pittacus, when he had got Alcæus into his power, released him, saying, "Forgiveness is better than revenge.
Diogenes lighted a candle in the daytime, and went round saying, "I am looking for a man.
When Thales was asked what was difficult, he said, To know one's self. And what was easy, To advise another.
Bion used to say that the way to the shades below was easy; he could go there with his eyes shut.
Diogenes said once to a person who was showing him a dial, "It is a very useful thing to save a man from being too late for supper.
A man once asked Diogenes what was the proper time for supper, and he made answer, "If you are a rich man, whenever you please; and if you are a poor man, whenever you can.
One of the sophisms of Chrysippus was, "If you have not lost a thing, you have it.
If appearances are deceitful, then they do not deserve any confidence when they assert what appears to them to be true.
Anarcharsis, on learning that the sides of a ship were four fingers thick, said that "the passengers were just that distance from death.
But Chrysippus, Posidonius, Zeno, and Boëthus say, that all things are produced by fate. And fate is a connected cause of existing things, or the reason according to which the world is regulated.
The mountains too, at a distance, appear airy masses and smooth, but seen near at hand they are rough.
Xenophanes speaks thus:-And no man knows distinctly anything,And no man ever will.
Anaximander used to assert that the primary cause of all things was the Infinite,-not defining exactly whether he meant air or water or anything else.
Arcesilaus had a peculiar habit while conversing of using the expression, "My opinion is," and "So and so will not agree to this.
Plato affirmed that the soul was immortal and clothed in many bodies successively.
Pythagoras used to say that he had received as a gift from Mercury the perpetual transmigration of his soul, so that it was constantly transmigrating and passing into all sorts of plants or animals.
The Stoics also teach that God is unity, and that he is called Mind and Fate and Jupiter, and by many other names besides.
Diogenes would frequently praise those who were about to marry, and yet did not marry.
Discourse on virtue and they pass by in droves. Whistle and dance and shimmy, and you've got an audience!
A vine bears three grapes, the first of pleasure, the second of drunkenness, and the third of repentance.
We have two ears and only one tongue in order that we may hear more and speak less.
