Frasi di Diogene di Sinope

22 frasi sulla saggezza e l'arguzia per ispirarsi a una prospettiva non convenzionale

“Se i Sinopi mi hanno condannato all'esilio, io li condanno a restare in patria!”

“Nulla di straordinario: anche uno scarafaggio e una tarantola saprebbero far questo.”

“La folla è madre dei tiranni.”

“Aspirare alla saggezza, anche questo è filosofia.”

“Anche il sole penetra nelle latrine, ma non ne è contaminato.”

“Quando si è giovani non ancora, quando si è vecchi mai più.”

“Non ti vergogni di disprezzare colui al quale tu devi se puoi vantarti?”

“[Alla domanda da dove venisse:] Sono cittadino del mondo intero.”

“Perché vivi se non ti curi di vivere bene?”

“La libertà di parola è la cosa più bella per gli uomini.”

“[sulla masturbazione] Magari bastasse strofinarsi il ventre per non avere più fame.”

“Se non altro, l'essere preparato ad ogni evento.”

“Magari potessi placare la fame, stropicciandomi il ventre.”

“È certo infelice, perché fa la colazione e il pranzo quando fa comodo ad Alessandro.”

“Ma è per questo, o disgraziato, che mi diedi alla filosofia.”

“Tutto appartiene agli dèi; i sapienti sono amici degli dèi; i beni degli amici sono comuni. Perciò i sapienti posseggono ogni cosa.”

“Uomini buoni in nessun luogo, ragazzi buoni a Sparta.”

“È come se corressi la lunga corsa nello stadio e in vista del traguardo dovessi desistere, invece di insistere ancora.”

“Ed io lui a rimanere a casa.”

“Non ti vergogni di trarre un pugnale di piombo da un fodero di avorio?”

“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.”