Diogenes Quotes
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We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less.
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Wise leaders generally have wise counselors because it takes a wise person themselves to distinguish them.
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He lit a lamp in broad daylight and said, as he went about, "I am looking for a human."
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When Alexander the Great addressed him with greetings, and asked if he wanted anything, Diogenes replied 'Yes, stand a little out of my sunshine.'
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Blushing is the color of virtue.
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Virtue cannot dwell with wealth either in a city or in a house.
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When the slave auctioneer asked in what he was proficient, he replied, "In ruling people."
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If your cloak was a gift, I appreciate it; if it was a loan, I'm not through with it yet.
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Stand a little less between me and the sun.
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Other dogs bite only their enemies, whereas I bite also my friends in order to save them.
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There is only a finger's difference between a wise man and a fool.
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I am Diogenes the Dog. I nuzzle the kind, bark at the greedy and bite scoundrels.
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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.
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The noblest people are those despising wealth, learning, pleasure and life; esteeming above them poverty, ignorance, hardship and death.
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Young men not ought to marry yet, and old men never ought to marry at all.
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It was a favorite expression of Theophrastus that time was the most valuable thing that a man could spend.
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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.
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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.
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Aristotle was once asked what those who tell lies gain by it. Said he - That when they speak truth they are not believed.
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Self-taught poverty is a help toward philosophy, for the things which philosophy attempts to teach by reasoning, poverty forces us to practice.
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He once begged alms of a statue, and, when asked why he did so, replied, "To get practice in being refused."
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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?
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It is the privilege of the gods to want nothing, and of godlike men to want little.
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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.