269 On seeing a young man blushing, he said, ‘Take courage, that’s the hue of virtue.’*
(Diogenes Laertius 6.54; G399)
270 To a son who spoke scornfully of his father, he said, ‘Aren’t you ashamed to speak scornfully of the one who made it possible for you to have such a high opinion of yourself?’*
(Diogenes Laertius 6.65; G396)
271 He said that education is a source of self-control for the young, a consolation for the old, a treasure for the poor, and an adornment for the rich.’
(Diogenes Laertius 6.68; G380)
272 When someone brought his son to him and said that he was highly gifted and extremely well-behaved, Diogenes said, ‘Then what need does he have of me?’
(Diogenes Laertius 6.64; G392)
273 One of the youths who associated with Diogenes fell silent when he put a question to him. ‘Don’t you think’, said Diogenes, ‘that it is the business of one and the same person to know what one should say and when, and when one should keep silent and toward whom?’
(Stobaeus 3.34.16; G475)
274 When someone asked how one can become a teacher to oneself, he replied, ‘By reproaching first of all in oneself those faults that one reproaches in others.’
(Stobaeus 3.1.55; G384)
275 When you worry about another, then you neglect yourself.
(Stobaeus 2.31.61: G315)
276 Diogenes said he would rather meet with failure among the cultivated than with success among the uncultivated.
(Codex Neapolitanus II D 22, no. 51; G378)
277 On seeing a child behaving in a disorderly manner, Diogenes struck his pedagogue,* saying, ‘Why did you teach him to behave like that?’
(Hermogenes, Progymnasmata 3.19; G388)
278 Who will be least subject to fear, who could have greater confidence, than one who is conscious of having committed no bad deed?*
(Stobaeus 3.24.14; G305)
279 When asked how someone in office should approach public affairs, he replied, ‘Just as with fire: don’t get so close that you get burnt, or keep so far away that you freeze.’*
(Maximus 9.26; G357)
280 When someone reproached Diogenes for entering unclean places, he said, ‘The sun too makes its way into middens, but is not defiled as a consequence.’
(Diogenes Laertius 6.63; G269)
281 Seeing an idle man, he said, ‘If you avoid the discomforts of the industrious, you’ll incur the misfortunes of the neglectful.’
(Codex Patmos 263, no. 68; G331C)
282 Seeing someone who was living a shameful life reproaching someone else for the very same thing, he said, ‘You’re like a pile of ashes trying to blow against the wind.’
(John of Sardis, Commentary to Aphthonius’ Progymnasmata p. 40, 11–13; G388)
283 To someone who was taking pride in wearing a lion-skin, he said, ‘Won’t you stop dishonouring the trappings of courage.’*
(Diogenes Laertius 6.45; G465)
284a He said that those who say the right things but fail to do them are no different from lyres, for those too can neither hear nor perceive.
(Diogenes Laertius 6.64; G320)
284b Diogenes said that some people say what is right but do not hear themselves, just as lyres make beautiful sounds but cannot perceive them.
(Stobaeus 3.23.10; G320)
285 On seeing that the Megarians were building large town-walls,* he cried, ‘You wretches, it’s not about the size of your walls that you should be worrying, but about the people who will be standing on them!’
(Stobaeus 3.7.46; G285)
286 Diogenes gave an excellent reply to someone who asked him for a letter of introduction. ‘That you are a man’, said Diogenes, ‘he will know as soon as he sees you; whether you are a good or a bad one, he will know if he has learned to distinguish between the good and the bad; and if he has not learned that, it would make no difference if I were to write him thousands of letters.’
(Epictetus 2.3.1; G470)
287 On seeing one of the so-called freedmen rejoicing and receiving congratulations from many people around, Diogenes marvelled at their irrationality and lack of judgement. ‘It is as if’, he said, ‘one were to proclaim that, from this day forth, some domestic slave should all at once become a grammarian, or geometer, or musician, when not having even the very slightest knowledge of those arts. So if a mere proclamation does not turn people into experts, so neither does it make them free—which truly would be a miracle—but simply brings it about that they should no longer be slaves.’
(Philo, That Every Good Man is Free 157; G445)
288 When asked how fathers and sons should behave toward one another, Diogenes said that they should not wait for one another to ask for something, but should grant it before needing to be asked. It is natural for the father, as one who has taken the lead in bestowing favours, to be quick to feel aggrieved if he is not well treated in return, while the son for his part is apt to become complacent, and not think it necessary to ask his father for something.
(Stobaeus 4.26.23; G394)
289 To the foolish the truth is bitter and unpleasant, while falsehood is sweet and agreeable; and likewise, I believe, for those who have diseased eyes, light causes pain, while darkness brings freedom from pain and is welcome, because it prevents them from being able to see.
(Excerpts from Manuscripts of Florilegia of John Damascene 2.31, 22; G313)
290 Diogenes said that it is absurd that, while we pour oil into a lamp to be able to see what is on the table, we are unwilling to pay out anything to become wiser in our minds, so as to be able to recognize what is best for us in life.
(Stobaeus 2.31.74; G316)
291 Diogenes said: from books one should take for use only what is of true value, and the rest one should throw away, just as we do with bones; for we make use of their marrow, while we throw the bones themselves to the dogs.
(Codex Neapolitanus II D 22, no. 49; G378)
292 Just as doctors use honey to sweeten the bitterness of their chosen remedies, so wise men make use of good humour to sweeten their dealings with disagreeable people.
(Antonius 2.32.61; G330)
293 Diogenes said that the training of children can be compared to the way in which potters mould their pots; for just as potters shape and fashion the still soft clay according to their wish, but can no longer mould it once it is baked, so likewise with children, if they are not rigorously trained with much effort while they are still young, it becomes impossible to reform them once they are fully grown.
(Stobaeus 2.31.87; G382)
294 Diogenes said that Medea was no sorceress* but a woman of great wisdom; for she took hold of men who had gone soft and whose bodies had become corrupted by luxury, and by making them toil in gymnasia and take steam-baths, she restored them to full vigour and health; and it was because of this that the rumour spread that she rejuvenated people by boiling their flesh.
(Stobaeus 3.29.92; G340)
295 Diogenes said that most people rot themselves alive by softening up their bodies in baths and wasting themselves away in sexual intercourse, and yet when they come to die, arrange for their body to be placed in embalming fluid or honey* to prevent it from rotting too quickly.
(Stobaeus 3.6.36; G104)
296 For the man who is suffering many a trouble there is no sure salvation except a good friend.
(Boissonade, Anecdota Graeca 1, p. 125, 3–4; G417)
297 Diogenes said that, to come off well in life, one needs either good friends or ardent enemies; for friends instruct you, and enemies expose your faults.
(Plutarch, How to Tell a Flatterer from a Friend 36, 74c; G420)
298 Diogenes said that one should behave well toward one’s friend, so that he should be one’s friend all the more, and likewise toward one’s enemy, so that he should become a friend, for it is necessary that we should guard against the reproaches of our friends, and against the schemes of our enemies.*
(Codex Vaticanus Graecus 633, fo. 121r; G420)
299 When he was asked how one can best exact revenge against* an enemy, he said, ‘By becoming a good and honest man oneself.’
(Gnomologium Vaticanum 187; G421)
300 On hearing that one of his acquaintances was associating with people of bad character, he said, ‘How absurd it is that when we are intending to set off on a voyage, we take care to select the best travelling-companions, and yet, when we have resolved to live well, we choose whomever chance sets in our path as our companions in life.’
(Gnomologium Vaticanum 197; G415)
301 He used to say that we should stretch out our hands to our friends with our fingers unclenched.*
(Diogenes Laertius 6.29; G277)
302 Seeing a rich man in the company of a poor one, he asked, ‘Who are these people who are associating together?’, and when someone replied, ‘They’re friends’, he said, ‘And how is it, then, that one is wretchedly poor and the other exceptionally rich?’*
(Codex Patmos 263, no. 66; G246C)
303 Someone told him that his friends were scheming against him. ‘And where would we be’, he replied, ‘if we had to treat our friends and our enemies just the same?’
(Diogenes Laertius 6.68; G419)
304 He who accepts foul words spoken against a friend strikes me as being just as bad as the calumniator himself.
(Boissonade, Anecdota Graeca 1, p. 125, 5–6; G418)
305 When someone told him about some abusive remarks that a friend had been making about him, he replied, ‘That my friend really said that may be doubted, that you have said it to me is a definite fact.’
(Gnomologium Monacense Latinum 24.3; G438)
306 When some perfidious person spoke ill of him, he said, ‘I’m glad to have become your enemy, since it’s not to your enemies that you seek to bring harm, but to your friends.’
(Maximus 10.25; G428)
307 On seeing shepherds eating a sheep in their tent, a wolf went up to it and said, ‘Just think what a fuss they would make if I were to do that!’*
(Antonius 1.39.55; G471)
While on a journey, Diogenes the Dog arrived at a river which was running very high, and stopped by the ford, having no idea how to get across. A man who had experience in ferrying people over noticed that he was at a loss, and went up to him and ferried him over to the opposite bank. Wondering at the man’s kindness, Diogenes stood there chiding himself for the poverty that made it impossible for him to repay his benefactor. While he was still reflecting on the matter, the man caught sight of another traveller who was unable to get over and hurried across to help him on his way. Diogenes then went up to the man and said, ‘Look here, I no longer feel grateful to you for what you did, for I can see that you’re doing this not by your own free decision, but because you’re sick in the head.’*
Moral: Those who perform good deeds for good and worthless people alike do not gain a reputation for being generous of mind, but for being short of sense.
(Aesop, Fables 65; G331)
309 When asked what is most precious in life, he said: ‘Hope.’*
(Stobaeus 4.46.20; G329)
310 When Diogenes was asked, ‘What is most difficult?’, he replied, ‘To know oneself,* since we all credit so much to ourselves through self-love.’
(Maximus 69.18; G308)
311 When asked what is wretched in life, he said: ‘An old man without means.’
(Diogenes Laertius 6.51; G84)
312 When someone asked him, ‘What do you consider old age to be?’, he replied, ‘Life’s winter-time.’
(Maximus 41.25: G85)
313 When asked, ‘What is a friend?’, he replied, ‘One soul dwelling in two bodies.’*
(Stobaeus 2.33.10; G416)
314 When asked where the Muses have their dwelling, he said: ‘In the souls of the cultivated.’*
(Papyrus Michigan inv. 41.l.6–7; G387)
315 When asked what weighs most heavily on the earth,* he said: ‘An uncultivated man.’
(Stobaeus 2.31.75; G377)
316 When asked which weighs more heavily, lead or gold, he replied: ‘A lack of culture.’
(Codex Vaticanus Graecus 633, fo. 121v; G377)
317 When asked what ages most swiftly among men, he replied: ‘Gratitude.’
(Stobaeus 2.46.13; G328)
318 When asked why gold is pale,* he replied, ‘Because so many people have designs upon it.’
(Diogenes Laertius 6.51; G227)
319 When asked what animal has the worst bite, he replied, ‘Of those that are wild, the informer,* of those that are tame, the flatterer.’
(Maximus 11.31; G423)
320 When asked what are the most dangerous beasts, he replied, ‘In the mountains, lions and bears, in the cities, tax-collectors* and informers.’
(Maximus 22.20; G424)
321 He said that it is much better to fall victim to crows than to flatterers,* who devour the best men while they are still alive.
(Athenaeus 6, 245c; G425)
322 Those who are fair of form but uncultivated he compared to perfume-jars filled with vinegar.
(Maximus 44.15; G378)
323 On flattery, as on a memorial stone, only the name of friendship stands inscribed.
(Stobaeus 3.14.14; G422)
324 Education is like a golden crown: for it brings high honour and is bought at high cost.
(Stobaeus 2.31.92; G381)
325 Boastfulness he compared to gold-plated armour, since the outer surface does not correspond to what is within.
(Stobaeus 3.22.40; G306)
326 A man who is rich but ignorant he called a sheep with golden fleece.
(Diogenes Laertius 6.47; G232)
327 Seeing a rich but uncultivated man, he said, ‘Look at the golden sheep!’
(Codex Vaticanus Graecus 633, fo. 115v; G379)
328 Seeing a youth who was rich but uncultivated, he said, ‘Silver-plated filth!’
(Theon, Progymnasmata 5.97; G388)
329 Seeing a good-looking youth chattering away in an unseemly fashion, he said ‘Aren’t you ashamed to draw a leaden blade from an ivory scabbard?’
(Diogenes Laertius 6.65; G411)
330 Good men he called images of the gods.
(Diogenes Laertius 6.51; G354)
331 Diogenes was admonishing a man of thoroughly bad character,and when someone asked him what he was doing, he replied, ‘Scrubbing an Ethiopian to turn him white.’*
(Antonius 2.32.60; G385)
332 Cure a corpse,* admonish the old, it’s all just the same.
(Maximus 16.12; G383)
333a Seeing two women conferring together, he said, ‘The adder’s borrowing poison from the viper.’*
(Maximus 39.15; G204)
333b Seeing one woman advising another, he said, ‘The adder’s acquiring poison from the viper.’
(Papyrus Sorbonne 826, no. 3; G204)
334 On seeing a girl learning her letters, he said, ‘I see a sword being sharpened.’*
(Gnomologium Parisinum 4)
335 Seeing a woman being carried in a litter, he said, ‘Not the right cage for the beast!’*
(Diogenes Laertius 6.51; G203)
336 When he saw some women hanging from an olive-tree, he said, ‘If only all trees bore such fruit!’*
(Diogenes Laertius 6.52; G202)
337a Seeing a woman being carried away by a river, he said, ‘Let the bad be carried away by the bad!’*
(Inscription at Herculaneum, no. 264 Della Corte; G206)
337b When someone pointed out to him that a woman was being carried away by a river, and said, ‘Let’s try to save her’, he replied, ‘Oh let the notorious evil be carried away by another evil.’
(Gnomologium Parisinum 3)
338 When asked what is bad in life, he said: ‘A good-looking woman.’
(Gnomologium Vaticanum 189; G201)
339a Seeing a woman who was beautiful but small, he said, ‘That’s what they call a half-evil.’
(Gnomologium Parisinum 2; G206B)
339b Seeing a woman who had only one eye, he said, ‘That’s what they call a half-evil.’
(Codex Vaticanus Graecus 96, fo. 88v, no. 7; G206B)
339c Seeing a woman who was beautiful but small, he said, ‘Small is the beauty, but great the evil!’
(Codex Vaticanus Graecus 96, fo. 88v, no. 6; G206B)
340 Seeing an Ethiopian eating white bread, he said, ‘Look, the night’s engulfing the day!’*
(Papyrus Sorbonne 826, no. 4; G466)
341 Seeing an Ethiopian shitting, he said, ‘Just like a leaky cauldron!’*
(Papyrus Sorbonne 826, no. 5; G466)