Trim away the unnecessary things in life and all that is left, all that matters is wisdom-be virtuous and you are living the good life. This simple dedication to virtue is Diogenes in a nutshell. “That orators were anxious to speak justly, but not at all about acting so.” “That the musicians fitted the strings to the lyre properly, but left all the habits of their soul ill-arranged.” “One of his frequent sayings was, ‘That men contended with one another in punching and kicking, but that no one showed any emulation in the pursuit of virtue.’” We see this conviction in philosophy’s simplicity running through Diogenean anecdotes and sayings: The Cynics took the Socratic conviction that virtue was sufficient for the good life and dedicated themselves to it. Diogenes’ teacher was a philosopher called Antisthenes who was in turn a student of Socrates. All this puffed up intellectualism went the same way as his old cup. “That mathematicians kept their eyes fixed on the sun and moon, and overlooked what was under their feet.”Ī man once proved to him syllogistically that he had horns, so he put his hand to his forehead and said, “I do not see them.” And in a similar manner he replied to one who had been asserting that there was no such thing as motion, by getting up and walking away. We still have a lot of quotes and examples of his disdain for intellectual pageantry. Diogenes took simplicity to an extreme that more than justifies Plato’s jibe that he is a Socrates gone mad. This simplicity applied not only to his material circumstances but to his intellectual philosophy. The liberation from slavery to the bodily appetites allowed Diogenes to be free from submission to others. “If you would only have washed vegetables, you wouldn’t have to be subservient to Dionysius.” “If you had only paid court to Dionysius you wouldn’t have to wash your vegetables” Plato, seeing Diogenes eating his supper of lentils and bread remarks that: In another anecdote we have - and one of the many Plato-related anecdotes - Diogenes is approached one evening by the great prince of philosophers. The two endeavours were inherently connected. He was determined to be free not just of society’s demands upon him but even of his body’s demands on his soul.

Diogenes more than exemplifies this principle. Cynic comes from the Ancient Greek meaning dog and this has been attributed to the fact that its members lived like dogs. Our modern word cynic derives from this ancient school of which Diogenes is the most famous philosopher. In winter, you could find him hugging icy statues and walking barefoot in the snow, while in summer you could find him rolling in hot sands.Īccording to many sources, this is where the term Cynicism comes from. He put his body through rigorous training to put up with the elements. This simplicity of living demanded a strong dose of self-control from Diogenes. Even this proved too luxurious one day, when he saw a boy drinking water from his hands he threw away the cup saying the boy had outdone him in simplicity. His possessions amounted to a cloak, a walking stick, a cup and a wallet to store food in. He shunned all possessions, status and wealth and strived to live a life of ascetic simplicity. When he first came to Athens, he took up residence in an upturned wine cask in the agora - the marketplace of Athens. Diogenes ruthlessly applied this simple rubric to every aspect of his life. Simplicity manifests itself in two intertwined ways in the philosophy of Diogenes⁠-the philosophical and the physical.įor this godfather of Cynical philosophy, living the good life is easy⁠ - it’s just a matter of stripping away all the bullshit, of cutting away everything that is unnecessary.

Diogenes laertius vs diogenes of sinope