Frases de Diógenes de Sinope

“Para que serve um filósofo, se não para machucar os sentimentos de alguém?”

“A sabedoria serve de freio à juventude, de consolação à velhice, de riqueza aos pobres e de ornamento aos ricos.”

“Só é verdadeiramente livre quem está sempre pronto a morrer.”

“Na casa de um rico não há lugar para se cuspir, a não ser em sua cara.”

“Analisa bem quem é teu amigo, porque se o consideras como sendo-o, e ele o não é, pode ser o teu maior inimigo.”

“Se eu não fosse Diógenes, também gostaria de ser Diógenes.”

“Qual o melhor momento para o jantar? 'Se alguém é rico, quando quiser, se é pobre, quando puder'.”

“Devemos ter amigos que nos ensinam o bem; e perversos e cruéis inimigos, que nos impeçam de praticar o mal.”

“Entre os animais ferozes, o de mais perigosa mordedura é o delator; entre os animais domésticos, o adulador.”

“O amor é o emprego dos ociosos.”

“Até mesmo o sol penetra nas latrinas, mas não é contaminado por elas.”

“Com que idade um homem se deve casar? ''Não quando ainda é jovem, nunca quando já é velho''.”

“Os grandes são como o fogo, do qual convém não nos aproximarmos muito nem afastarmo-nos demasiado.”

“Discurse sobre a virtude e eles passarão como rebanho. Assobie e cante, e terás uma platéia.”

“Se o corpo chamasse a alma perante a justiça, ele a convenceria facilmente de má administração.”

“Being asked where in Greece he saw good men, he replied, "'Good men nowhere, but good boys at Sparta."”

“It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours.”

“The noblest people are those despising wealth, learning, pleasure and life; esteeming above them poverty, ignorance, hardship and death.”

“Plato had defined Man as an animal, biped and featherless, and was applauded. Diogenes plucked a fowl and brought it into the lecture-room with the words, "Behold Plato's man!"”

“When some one reminded him that the people of Sinope had sentenced him to exile, he said, "And I sentenced them to stay at home."”

“He once begged alms of a statue, and, when asked why he did so, replied, "To get practice in being refused."”

“When people laughed at him because he walked backward beneath the portico, he said to them: "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?"”

“When Alexander the Great addressed him with greetings, and asked if he wanted anything, Diogenes replied "Yes, stand a little out of my sunshine."”

“To one who asked what was the proper time for lunch, he said, "If a rich man, when you will; if a poor man, when you can."”

“One day, observing a child drinking out of his hands, he cast away the cup from his wallet with the words, "A child has beaten me in plainness of living."”

“Poverty is a virtue which one can teach oneself.”

“Once he saw the officials of a temple leading away some one who had stolen a bowl belonging to the treasurers, and said, "The great thieves are leading away the little thief."”

“He was breakfasting in the marketplace, and the bystanders gathered round him with cries of "dog." "It is you who are dogs," cried he, "when you stand round and watch me at my breakfast."”

“On reaching Athens he fell in with Antisthenes. Being repulsed by him, because he never welcomed pupils, by sheer persistence Diogenes wore him out. Once when he stretched out his staff against him, the pupil offered his head with the words, “Strike, for you will find no wood hard enough to keep me away from you, so long as I think you've something to say."”

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

“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.”

“No man is hurt but by himself.”

“When some one boasted that at the Pythian games he had vanquished men, Diogenes replied, "Nay, I defeat men, you defeat slaves."”

“Aristotle dines when it seems good to King Philip, but Diogenes when he himself pleases.”

“Perdiccas threatened to put him to death unless he came to him, "That's nothing wonderful," Diogenes said, "for a beetle or a tarantula would do the same."”

“Diogenes the cynic, seeing one of the so-called freedmen pluming himself, while many heartily congratulated him, marveled at the absence of reason and discernment. “A man might as well,” he said, “proclaim that one of his servants became a grammarian, a geometrician, or musician, when he has no idea whatever of the art.” For as the proclamation cannot make them men of knowledge, so neither can it make them free.”

“Virtue cannot dwell with wealth either in a city or in a house.”

“When the slave auctioneer asked in what he was proficient, he replied, "In ruling people."”

“He was going into a theatre, meeting face to face those who were coming out, and being asked why, "This," he said, "is what I practise doing all my life."”

“He was seized and dragged off to King Philip, and being asked who he was, replied, "A spy upon your insatiable greed."”

“Self-taught poverty is a help toward philosophy, for the things which philosophy attempts to teach by reasoning, poverty forces us to practice.”

“Thieves and fighters do not come from eaters of barley-bread; but informers and tyrants come from meat-eaters.”

“To Xeniades, who had purchased Diogenes at the slave market, he said, "Come, see that you obey orders."”

“Boasting, like gilded armour, is very different inside from outside.”