Reflections

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Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Wisdom from the Early Cynics, Diogenes 27


Being short of money, Diogenes told his friends that he applied to them not for alms, but for repayment of his due. 

When behaving indecently in the marketplace, he wished it were as easy to relieve hunger by rubbing an empty stomach. 

Seeing a youth starting off to dine with satraps, he dragged him off, took him to his friends and bade them keep strict watch over him. 

When a youth effeminately attired put a question to him, he declined to answer unless he pulled up his robe and showed whether he was man or woman. 

A youth was playing kottabos in the baths. Diogenes said to him, "The better you play, the worse it is for you." 

At a feast certain people kept throwing all the bones to him as they would have done to a dog. Thereupon he played a dog's trick and drenched them. 

—Diogenes Laërtius, 6.46 



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