If you search the internet for Diogenes quotes, by the way, you'll find a lot of lines that were lifted from Diogenes Laertius and reworded as first-person quotes from Diogenes. In " Lives of Eminent Philosophers," the Greek historian Diogenes Laertius recorded the greatest comedic hits of Diogenes, including some truly sick burns directed at figures like Alexander the Great and Plato. Everything else was nonsense.ĭiogenes left no writing of his own and just about everything we know about him was written centuries later by another guy named Diogenes. Human nature and reason, to Cynics, were the only requirements for a happy life. But the Cynics lived this way to make a point - that there is nothing shameful about being human. They dressed in rough blankets, slept under porticos, and did every "shameful" human act in public. It's Diogenes who took the radicalized version of that."ĭiogenes and his Cynic followers were beggars. "He just said not to care about money or status or power more than you care about the state of your soul. He survived to age 90, and statues were built in his memory."But Socrates never said to give up all of your possessions," says Piering. Unlike Plato, Diogenes didn’t write down his philosophies. Plato declared, ‘Man is a featherless biped.’ Diogenes threw a plucked chicken at him and said, ‘Here’s Plato’s man.’ Plato curried favor with the rich and powerful and was enamored of his own fame. Plato was a contemporary, but they were opposites who hated one another. Diogenes wrote back: You’re too powerful to need me and I’m too self-sufficient to need you. They had several encounters over the years.Īlexander sent a note: Come visit me. Rather than getting angry, Alexander was impressed. Alexander stood over the philosopher and offered to grant him any wish. Diogenes did not rise to his feet to meet the man. The conqueror found the eccentric philosopher sitting on the ground on a sunny day. So famous was Diogenes the Cynic that Alexander the Great sought him out. He spent the rest of his life in that city. The pirates then sold Diogenes to a wealthy man in Corinth who made him tutor to his two sons. Though enslaved, he asked others to not be so miserable, and he shared his meager rations with his fellow prisoners. Later, Diogenes was taken prisoner by pirates.
Many citizens regarded Diogenes as a harmless clown, a quasi-celebrity, and they were pleased to have an attraction in their midst. A man invited him to his mansion and told the guests not to spit in the house. He would often go out of his way to insult people. After a speech in which he railed against temptation, he squatted and took a crap. He believed anything done in private should also be done in public. He had a propensity to do outrageous things to draw attention. He had no desire to teach and avoided politics. He believed that little in life was actually good. One less thing to own.ĭiogenes’ philosophies were controversial. Diogenes then purposefully broke his own water cup. One day, he saw a boy drinking water with his hands. Diogenes loved dogs for their resilience, their ability to live happily with nothing, sleep, eat and shit anywhere. He became so unkempt that people called him the Dog. He wore rags for clothing, if he wore clothes at all. He was often seen sleeping on city streets in a giant, empty, discarded wine cask. So began Diogenes’ ascetic life in which he remained a single, homeless, penniless wanderer. If a mouse could be satisfied with little, why couldn’t he? He grew angry and jealous of partiers but saw a mouse eating bread crumbs. He then copied Antithenes’ sardonic wit.ĭiogenes had an epiphany. He stalked one of Socrates’ students, Antithenes, until he agreed to accept Diogenes as a pupil. Her advice led him to live a life devoid of money and social norms. He traveled to Delphi to consult an Oracle. He was a contemporary - and rival - of Plato.Īs a young man, he fled from his hometown in Northern Turkey after he and his father, a money printer, debased the local currency.īoth men were captured. 4th Century BC: Diogenes was a philosopher best known for his highly eccentric behaviors.
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