ĭiogenes Searching for an Honest Man (1640–1647) by Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione held at the National Gallery of Artĭiogenes made a virtue of poverty. There are many tales about his dogging Antisthenes' footsteps and becoming his "faithful hound". He declared himself a cosmopolitan and a citizen of the world rather than claiming allegiance to just one place. He had a reputation for sleeping and eating wherever he chose in a highly non-traditional fashion, and took to toughening himself against nature. He used his simple lifestyle and behavior to criticize the social values and institutions of what he saw as a corrupt, confused society. He modeled himself on the example of Heracles, and believed that virtue was better revealed in action than in theory. After his hasty departure from Sinope he moved to Athens where he proceeded to criticize many cultural conventions of the Athens of that day. He was the son of the mintmaster of Sinope, and there is some debate as to whether or not he alone had debased the Sinopian currency, whether his father had done this, or whether they had both done it. He was allegedly banished from, or fled from Sinope, for debasement of currency. He was born in Sinope, an Ionian colony on the Black Sea coast of Anatolia ( Asia Minor ) in 412 or 404 BC and died at Corinth in 323 BC. It takes a wise man to discover a wise man.Crates of Thebes, other Cynics, Epicurus, the Stoics, Han Ryner, Michel Onfray, Søren Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Max Stirner, Nussbaum, Appiahĭiogenes ( / d aɪ ˈ ɒ dʒ ɪ n iː z/ dy- OJ-in-eez Ancient Greek: Διογένης, romanized: Diogénēs ), also known as Diogenes the Cynic ( Διογένης ὁ Κυνικός, Diogénēs ho Kynikós), was a Greek philosopher and one of the founders of Cynic philosophy. The great thieves lead away the little thief. He has the most who is most content with the least. Stand a little less between me and the sun. 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. I know nothing, except the fact of my ignorance. The foundation of every state is the education of its youth. What I like to drink most is wine that belongs to others. It is the privilege of the gods to want nothing, and of godlike men to want little. The sun, too, shines into cesspools and is not polluted. I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world. 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. Most men are within a finger’s breadth of being mad. The vine bears three kinds of grapes: the first of pleasure, the second of intoxication, the third of disgust. I threw my cup away when I saw a child drinking from his hands at the trough. We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less.Ī friend is one soul abiding in two bodies. Man is the most intelligent of the animals – and the most silly. The sun too penetrates into privies, but is not polluted by them. 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. I do not know whether there are gods, but there ought to be.
It was a favorite expression of Theophrastus that time was the most valuable thing that a man could spend. Wise kings generally have wise counselors and he must be a wise man himself who is capable of distinguishing one.
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.Īs 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. It was said of Diogenes that throughout his life he “searched with a lantern in the daylight for an honest man.” And though Diogenes apparently did not find an honest man, he had, in the process, “exposed the vanity and selfishness of man.” His goal was to show people how pathetic their superficial lives were and how dishonest society was. He was an unconventional and controversial philosopher. Antisthenes believed that happiness was only obtained by “complete independence”, throwing away comfortable life and living with nothing and in extreme poverty, eating and drinking with his hands only. Diogenes was a pupil of Antisthenes, a disciple of Socrates.
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