Life

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Diogenes (c.404 - c. 323 BC) was born at Sinope on the Black sea coast as the son of a banker but later settled in Athens, where he became acquainted with Socratic moral thought, supposedly from Antisthenes, a disciple of Socrates who advocated an ascetic way of life. Taking such ideas to an extreme, Diogenes cast aside whatever he may have owned to live as a beggar in the streets. He thought that we should anticipate the worst that fate can bring by living a life of hardship, and be contented to satisfy our basic needs in the simplest way possible. Casting scorn not only on luxury but on civilized life and culture in general, he tied to shock others into changing their lives by behaving in a provocative and shameless manner, and by subjecting people to his acerb wit. He thus came to be known as the Dog, and his philosophy and way of life as Cynic, meaning dog-like. (Diogenes - Oxford p.0)

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Son of banker called Hicesias, who was responsible for the issuing and supervision of the Sinopea currency. (Diogenes - Oxford p.xiv)

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It provides the sole basis for the common assumption that Diogenes did not arrive in Athens until he was over fifty. (Diogenes - Oxford p.xv)

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Diogenes and his father adulterated the coinage (...) his father was imprisoned as a result and died. (...) The sin opens have condemned you to exile”, he replied, “Yes, and I’ve condemned them to say where they are”. (...) falsified the currency, he said, “That was a time when I was just as you are now; but what I am no, you will never be”. And to another who made the same reproach, he replied, “And there was once a day when I would piss in my bed, but no longer”. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 7)

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He is said to have been almost ninety years old when he died. (Diogenes - Oxford p.82)

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Diogenes grew old in the house of Xeniades. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 61)

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When he was sold into slavery he bore it with great nobility of spirit. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 57)

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Lifestyle

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He is popularly known for having lived in a barrel or tub and for his barked utterances. (...) He was trying to convey a serious message through his disconcerting behavior and caustic wit. (...) Diogenes makeshift home was more accurately a very large ceramic jar, of a kind that was used for storing grain or water. Since he had deliberately chosen to live as a beggar in the streets of Athens, he had no house to return to and would have taken shelter at night wherever he could, in doorways, temples, or public arcades. (...) To be prepared for any kind of weather, he would wear a rough cloak folded double, which would enable him to keep warm in winter and cold in summer; and since he owned no more than what he could lug around within him, he would carry a knapsack for his provisions and scanty possessions. Perhaps there was even room in it for a few books and for writings materials. (Diogenes - Oxford p.Vii)

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Diogenes would eat such food as he could gain out in the streets, and the story even went that he would masturbate in public (for what easier way could there be to satisfy his sexual desire). The Cynic life was thus of necessity a shameful one, and far from playing that down, Diogenes deliberately behaved in a shocking manner to show his contempt for conventional social attitudes. (Diogenes - Oxford p.viii)

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He would regularly masturbate in public and used to say “If only one could put an end to hunger by rubbing one’s stomach. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 16)

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When he was once dining with the king Antigonos and scented water was brought in, he rubbed it into his knees; and when the king asked, “Why are you doing that?”, He replied, “Because when I am lying in bed, I hold my knees up to my nostrils. “(Diogenes - Oxford p. 44)

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Public relations

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He could find nothing else to ask of Alexander than that he should stand out of his sun. Although the notion that he died on the same day as Alexander. (Diogenes - Oxford p.xi)

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For it was Antisthenes who took the lead in developing the ascetic strain in Socratic thought; and it was he who, rightly or wrongly, came to be regarded as having been the master of Diogenes, so forming the first link in the vain that lead Socrates to Stoics.: Socrates - Antisthenes - Diogenes  -Crates - Zeno (Diogenes - Oxford p.xi)

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It is far from certain that he was really a pupil of Antisthenes. (Diogenes - Oxford p.xii)

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Although Antisthenes rebutted him because he did not want to accept any pupils, Diogenes won his way through his persistence. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 7)

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Antisthenes once raised his stick against him, he offered his head, saying,” Go on then, hit me, for you’ll not find any wood that’s hard enough to keep me away until such time as you have something to say to me”. And from time forth he became his pupil. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 8)

During the night a thief attempted to pull his money bag “Take it, you wretch, and allow me to get some sleep”. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 13)

When he was sold at the Corin, the auctioneer asked him, “ what do you know how to do?” And he replied, “How to govern men”. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 58)

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Extra critic

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Demetrius the cynic: This man of enormous courage, who opposed all the desires of nature, who were poorest than all other cynics, in that he not only banned himself from enjoying possessions but for desiring to have them, this man, they say, does not know true poverty. For you see: he has publicly declared a knowledge, not of virtue, but of poverty. (Seneca - Dialogues and Essays Oxford p.100)

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The cynic doesn’t marry or father children. He has the whole human race as his children, man, all the men as sons, all the women as daughters: and it is in that spirit that he approaches them all and tries to take care of them. (Epictetus - Discourses, Fragments, Handbook Oxford p.190)

For the cynic is in truth a spy who seeking to find out what things are friendly to human beings, and what are hostile. (Epictetus - Discourses, Fragments, Handbook Oxford p.184)

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But I can show you a free man, to save you from having to search any longer for example. Diogenes is free. (Epictetus - Discourses, Fragments, Handbook Oxford p.234)

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More often, he cites as his ideals Socrates or Diogenes the cynic. (Epictetus - Discourses, Fragments, Handbook Oxford p.xvi)

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Content

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Make the public reflect on moral assumptions 

He came to be called the Dog (Kvon; Aristotle could refer to him by that name without the need for further specifications) (...) He yapped like a dog and had a biting tongue. In taking his philosophy into the streets, he adopted a very different procedure from that of Socrates, and instead of causing people to reflect on their moral assumptions by questioning them and engaging in reasoned discussion, he restored to shock tactics both in the manner of his speech and in his behavior. (Diogenes - Oxford p.viii)

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Tactic 

His approach is summed up in two anecdotes in which he proverbs a response by assuming a contrary path to the crowd. He walked into a theatre against the flow of the emerging crowd, and when asked why, said that he spent his entire life doing that; he walked backwards in a public arcade, and when people laughed at him, retorted that it was they who should be ashamed for taking the wrong direction in life (Diogenes - Oxford p.viii)

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1 Shock with speech

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1.1 Plague on you 

Diogenes a Plague on you: It is not only the dog who hates you, but also nature herself, for rarely do you have any occasion for joy, but much for distress, both before and after your wedding day, for you are already corrupted and disaffected by the time that you marry (...) Would it not be better, you poor fools, to attempt to educate such people rather than to execute them? For corpses are of no use whatever to us,  unless we are to eat them like the meat from sacrificial beasts, but we have every need of good men, you fools. (...) Setting to work in the proper manner, they cut and cauterize and bind, and apply their remedies both inside and outside the body. And should you regain your health, you offer no thanks to the so-called doctors, but say that one should offer up thanks to the gods; and if you fail to recover, you blame the doctors. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 169/8)

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1.2 On being praised for giving money 

When some people praised somebody for having given him money, he said, “But you aren’t praising me for having deserved to receive it/” (Diogenes - Oxford p. 17)

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1.3 On coming well in life 

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. (Diogenes - Oxford p.66)

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1.4 On pretending to be a philosopher without really being one 

When someone told him that he was pretending to be a philosopher without really being one, he replied, “Then I’m better than you at least in the fact that I do actually want to be one”. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 24)

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1.5 On being old 

“You’re an old man and ought to take things easy from now on”. he replied. “What, if I were running in a long-distance race, would I ease up when approaching the finishing line, rather than strain all the harder?” (Diogenes - Oxford p. 79)

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1.6 On asking a disagreeable man for some money 

He once asked a disagreeable man for some money, and when the man said, “If you can persuade me”, replied, “If I were capable of doing that, I would have persuaded you to go away and hang yourself.”. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 19)

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1.7 Ernest 

He said that the orators are very earnest about justice in their speeches, but not at all in their actions. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 51)

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1.8 Verbal abuse 

When abused by someone who was bald, he said, “I’ll not insult you in return, but simply congratulate your hair for having taken flight from such an evil head.” (Diogenes - Oxford p.73)

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1.9 Physical abuse 

When said what he would want to receive a punch in his head, he said, “a helmet”. (Diogenes - Oxford p.73)

1.10 Truth 

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. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 65)

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1.11 Family 

Diogenes: One should neither marry nor rear children, since our race is weak, and marriage and children burden human weakness with many a trouble. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 167)

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1.12 Slavery 

How extraordinary it is that if one has pigs or sheep which one is intending to sell, one threatens them up with choice food until they are plump, and yet when one has charge of that finest of creatures, a human being, one lets him starve and constantly keeps him short of food until he has been reduced to a skeleton, and then sell him for a song” (Diogenes - Oxford p. 58)

Cleomenes recounts in his book On Pedagogues that the friends of Diogenes wanted to reason him, but he responded by telling them that they were utterly naive; for lions, he explained are not slaves of those who feed them, but rather it is those who feed them that are the slaves of the lions; for tear is what characterizes a slave, and wild beasts make men afraid of them. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 61)

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1.13 Racism 

Seeing an Ethiopian eating with bread, he said, “Look, the night’s engulfing the day!”. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 72)

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1.14 God 

Diogenes said, “People pray to the gods for good health, and yet most of them constantly act in such a way as damage their health. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 45)

To a couple who were sacrificing to the gods, in the hope of having a son, he said, “But you don’t sacrifice to ensure what kind of person he’ll turn out to be”. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 45)

A man who was highly superstitious once remarked to Diogenes, “ I could break your head in with a single blow”, to which he replied, “And I for my part could make you tremble with fear simply by sneezing from the left (suddenly)”. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 47)

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1.15 What he gained from philosophy? 

When someone asked him what he had gained from philosophy he said. “This is nothing else, that I’m prepared for every fortune”. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 31)

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1.16 What is Love? 

Love, he said, is the occupation of the unoccupied. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 40)

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1.17 What is a friend? 

When asked, “what is a friend?”, He replied, “One soul dwelling in two bodies.” (Diogenes - Oxford p.69)

When someone told him 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. (Diogenes - Oxford p.67)

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1.18 What is more precious in life? 

When asked what is most precious in life, he said:”Hope”. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 68)

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1.19 Don’t you care that many people are laughing at you? 

To someone who told him, “Many people laugh at you”, he replied,  “Yes, but I’m not laughing down”. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 23)

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2 Behavior 

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2.1 Does motion exist? 

When someone said there is no such thing as motion, he got up and walked. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 32)

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2.2 Study with him? 

When someone expressed a wish to study philosophy with him, Diogenes gave him a fish to carry and told him to follow in his footsteps; the man threw it away out of shame “our friendship was brought to an end by a fish”. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 17)

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2.3 Homosexuality

As Diogenes was once wrestling with an attractive boy, his penis began to stir; and when the boy took alarm and drew back, he said, “ Don’t be afraid, lad, I’m not of the same mind as that.” (Diogenes - Oxford p. 41)

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2.4 Poverty

2.4a Anticipation of the worst 

For someone like Antisthenes, poverty meant nothing more than being satisfied to live modestly on limited private means, while Diogenes thought that one should anticipate the very worst that fate can bring by plunging into a life of complete destitution. (Diogenes - Oxford p.xii)

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2.4b Rat 

Not only luxury and pleasure but also civic and cultural endeavor, as being utterly worthless, one can achieve assured contentment, so Diogenes thought, by living like an animal in the streets, without any concern for the future. According to an anecdote recorded by a young contemporary of his, he claimed to have drawn this lesson by observing the behavior of a mouse.  (Diogenes - Oxford p.viii)

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2.5 Life

2.5a Minimal 

It was a commonplace of Socratic thought that one can be rich by being satisfied with little (...) Diogenes recapitalized this idea, taking it to the utmost extreme. (Diogenes - Oxford p.vii)

Diogenes life is particular for all to follow (...) a short cut to fame (Diogenes - Oxford p. 5)

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2.5b Reason or Rope 

Diogenes would constantly say that to manage our lives properly, we need either reason or a rope. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 31)

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2.5c Should grow on trees 

When he saw some women hanging from an olive-tree, he said, “If only all trees bore such fruit!”. (Diogenes - Oxford p.71)

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2.6 Mass critic 

He lit a lamp in daylight and walked through the streets of Athens with it; and when asked why replied that he was looking for a man. Since lightning a lamp in daylight was a proverbial expression for futile exercise, this was a symbolic action that was designed to suggest that it is pointless to expect to be able to find a man in Athens. (...) The mass of people, who accept conventional social values, not knowing what human nature is and what it means to live in accordance with nature, are not really proper human beings at all, but anonymous members of the crowd, or slaves, or scum. (Diogenes - Oxford p.ix)

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2.7 Rejection 

To become a true individual and proper human being, so he thought, one must turn aside from conventional society and reject all its values, to live in accordance with nature, and nature at a very basic level; otherwise one will simply remain a member of the crowd. (Diogenes - Oxford p.ix)

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2.8 Nihilism 

Diogenes; he attacks conventional attitudes because he wanted to re-stamp the currency, replacing false values with those which would (according to his conception) enable a human being to fulfill their true nature. (Diogenes - Oxford p.ix)

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2.9 Freedom 

Such was the way in which he would argue (...) not ascribing the same worth to merely conventional values as to those that accord with nature (...) Same stamps as that of Heracles, in so far as he set freedom above all else. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 30)

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2.10 Purpose 

You’re looking at a citizen of the world (...) Diogenes a campaign against pleasure (...) my purpose to clean up human life. (...)Leading such life, you will profess to be happier than the king of Persia(...) “Your mind will feel the pain, but not your tongue”.4)

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More Cynics...

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Antisthenes 

Antisthenes, son of Antisthenes, was an Athenian, but it was said that he was not of pure Athenian birth. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 117)

He was initially a pupil of Georgias the rhetorician (...) After a time, however, he attached himself to Socrates (...) he used to walk forty stares to the city each day to listen to Socrates. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 118)

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1 Virtue 

He set out to show that virtue can be taught, and that true nobility belongs only to the virtuous: that virtue suffices to ensure happiness, requiring nothing further apart from the strength of a Socrates. (Diogenes - Oxford p.118)

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2 Enemies 

One should pay good heed to one’s enemies since they are the first to recognize one’s errors. One should value an honest man above a relation. Virtue is the same for a woman as for a man. What is good is honorable and what is bad is shameful. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 118)

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Monimos 

Monimos of Syracuse: was a pupil of Diogenes, and, as Socrates reports, was in the service of a Cortinthian banker. This banker used to receive regular visits from Xeniades, the man who had purchased Diogenes. (...) Monimos then pretended to go mad, and threw around all the money and small change that was on the counter, until his master- dismissed him; whereupon he immediately attached himself to Diogenes. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 84)

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1 Illusion 

Monimos says that everything is an illusion. “Everything is what you suppose it to be”. (Diogenes - Oxford p.84)

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2 Marriage 

When someone else said that marriage and life with a woman seemed to him to be an obstacle if one wants to become a philosopher, Musonius replied, “ It was no obstacle for Pythagoras, or for Socrates, or for Crates, all of whom lived with a wife; and one could hardly claim that anyone else pursued philosophy better than they did. Crates, indeed, had no home, no household goods, no possessions, but was married nonetheless; and having no roof of his own, he spent his days and nights in the public arcades of Athens along with his wife. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 100)

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Crates 

Crates of Thebes: was born at Thebes. He was one of the illustrator's pupils of the dog (...) He was known as the “Door-opener” because he would enter every house to advise. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 87)

When he died, he left 30 talents to The bans, saying that if his son proved worthy of him, he would have no need of money, while if he proved unworthy, even that much would not be enough. (Diogenes - Oxford p.88)

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1 Happiness 

Crates said “These people account one another happy because one does the opposite of the other; but I account myself happy because I no longer play either part, being neither the seller nor a buyer. (Diogenes - Oxford p.91)

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2 Health 

Crates was in the habit of running a certain distance each day, and would say, “ I’m running for the sake of my spleen, for the sake of my liver, for the sake of my stomach.” (Diogenes - Oxford p. 92)

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3 Abusive training 

Crates: He made a deliberate habit of railing at prostitutes to train himself to endure foul abuse. (Diogenes - Oxford p.93)

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Crates to Hipparchia

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1 Sex 

Whereas most men withdraw in to private to have intercourse with their wives, Crates had intercourse with Hippachia in public. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 101)

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2 Letter of love 

Crates to Hipporchia: I have just learned that you have given birth an easy delivery; for you told me nothing about this. Thanks be to God and to you. You are convinced, I presumed, that taking pain saves one from suffering pain, for you would surely not have given birth with such ease unless, during your pregnancy, you had tailed like an athlete. Now most women, when they are pregnant, sink the beak into a life of ease, with the result that, when they give birth, their children, if they survive, remain sickly. If what had to happen has duly come to pass, make sure that you take good care of this little pup of ours. Let his bathwater be cold, his swaddling-clothes a rough cloak, and his food be mil, but not too much of it. You should rock him to sleep in a tortuous shell, for that, so they say, serves to protect against the diseases of childhood. When the child is able to speak and walk, you should fit him out, not with a sword, such as Athira gave Theseus, but with a stick and rough cloak and knapsack, which provides a surer defense for men than swords, and then send him off to Athens. As for the rest, I will make it my business to rear him as a stork for my old age rather than a dog. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 174)

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Hipparchia 

Hipparchia of Maroneia: the sister of Metrocles (...) she fell in love with the teaching and way of life of Crates and showed no interest at all in any of her suitors, whatever their wealth, or high birth, or beauty; no, Crates meant everything to her. She even threatened her parents with suicide if she were not allowed to marry him. Thy, therefore, appealed to Crates to talk to the girl around, and he made every effort, until finally, on finding himself unable to persuade her, he stood up, removed all his clothing right in front of her, and said, “Here is your bridegroom, here are his possessions, make your choice accordingly; for you will be no fit companion for me if you do not share the same way of life.” The girl made her choice, adopted the same form of dress, and went around with her husband, living with him in public and accompanying him to dinner. (Diogenes - Oxford p.99)

He [Crates] married Hipparchia of Maroneia and called this marriage a “dog-marriage”. By her, he had a son named Pasicles. (Diogenes - Oxford p.100)

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1 Feminism 

Theodoros having no reply to offer to her argument, tried to pull up her cloak; but Hipparchia was neither alarmed nor perturbed by that. As one might expect a woman to be. (Diogenes - Oxford p.100)

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Metrocoles 

Metrocles, the brother-in-law of Diogenes main follower Crates, compiled the first recorded collection of chreia, which presumably concentrated on Cynic material with Diogenes to the fore. (Diogenes - Oxford p.xxi)

Metrocles of Maroneia: was the brother of  Hipporchia (...) pupil of Theophrastos the Peripatetic (...) fallen into such a bad state of mind that, when he had once let off a fart while delivering a discourse (...) he shut himself up in his house, intending to starve himself to death. When Crates heard of this, he came to visit him (...) to persuade Metrocles by an argument that he had done nothing so very bad (...) in the final resort Crates farted in his turn, and so managed to put a new heart in him, reassuring him by acting in just the same way as he had done. From that time onward Metrocles become his pupil and gained some standing as a philosopher. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 101)

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Zeno 

Zeno of Citium, founder of Stoic school was born at Citium in Cypros (...) He was a pupil of Crates. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 103)

Zeno asked where men such as Socrates might be found. Just at that moment, Crates happened to pass by, and the bookseller pointed to him and said, “ Follow that man:. From that time onward Zeno becomes a pupil of Crates, but although he was very callous in other respect in his attachment to philosophy, he was too modest to be able to adopt the shamelessness of the Cynic. So Crates, wanting to cure him of his bashfulness, gave him a jar of lentil soup to carry through the potter’s district; and on seeing that he was ashamed and was trying to hide it from sight, Crates struck the jar with his stick and broke it; and as Zeno took to flight with the lentil soup running down his legs, Crates cried out, “Why are you running away, my little Phonetician? Nothing dreadful has happened to you!”. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 103)

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Aristippos 

Aristippos of Cyrene (c. 435 - c. 360 BC), the disciple of Socrates who became the founder of the cyrenais school of philosophy. (...) He thought that happiness is to be sought in the pleasure of the moment, and so introduced a hedonistic strain into the Socratic succession. (Diogenes - Oxford p.0)

Aristippos of Cyrene, was born at Cyrene, but came to Athens, being drawn there, so Aeschines reports, by the fame of Socrates. (...) First follower of Socrates to charge fees (...) Socrates returned the money Aristippos gave to him. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 123)

He was a man who was skilled in adapting himself to place, and to time, and to person, and played his role in the manner that befitted each circumstance. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 123)

Diogenes used call him the royal dog. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 123)

Moving away from a man who was abusing him, Aristippos, said “Just as you are master of your tongue, I am masters of my ears”. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 140)

To someone who criticized him for having left Socrates to go to Diogenes, he replied, “ But I went to Socrates for education, and to Dionysios for diversion.” (Diogenes - Oxford p. 134)

When Dionysios asked him why philosophers come to rich men’s door, while the rich do not come to those of the philosophers, he replied “Because philosophers know what they have need of, while the rich do not” and “Yes, just as doctors are always visiting the sick; but no one would prefer for that reason to be ill rather than to be a doctor. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 136)

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1 Present 

Aristippos (...) urged people not to worry afterward about things that have gone by, or worry in advance about those confidence (...) He recommended that one should concentrate on the present day (...) For only the present, he said, truly belongs to us. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 124)

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2 Pleasure 

The man who masters pleasure is not the one who abstains from it, but the one who enjoys it without allowing himself to be carried away by it; in just the same way as the master of a horse or ship is not the one who has nothing to do with it, but the one who guides it where he wants. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 133)

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3 Luxury 

Aristippos lived a soft and luxurious life, with the argument “would;t you do the same?” (Diogenes - Oxford p. 129)

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4 Money 

When he was once making a sea-voyage (...) he took out his money and began to count it, and then, as if by accident, let it drop into the sea (...) “better for the money to be lost trough Aristippos than Aristippos through the money. (Diogenes - Oxford p.130)

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5 Sexual life 

To someone who reproached him for living with a courtesan (whore), he said, “Well then, if one is taking a house, does it make any difference whether many people have lived there before, on no one at all? “No difference”. “Pr if one is sailing in a ship, whether thousands have sailed in it before, or no one has?” “Not the least difference” “Then it makes no difference at all”, Aristippos conclude, “ whether the women with whom one lives has lived with many men before or with none. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 133)

⁵⁷ Each year Aristippos used to spend two months with her [Lais on Aegina during the festival of Poseidon; and when his servant reproached him for this, saying, “ you gave all this money to this women, and she takes a tumble with Diogenes for free”, he replied, “I reward Lais richly so that I may enjoy her, not to prevent anyone else from doing so”. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 134)

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6 Love 

When someone spoke badly of Lais to him, saying that she did not love him, he replied that he did not suppose that wine or fish loved him either, but he happily took his pleasure in both of them. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 134)

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7 Wise 

When asked how a wise man differs from one who is not, he replied, “send the two out naked among strangers, and then you will know.” (Diogenes - Oxford p.132)

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Young Aristippos 

Younger Aristippos, was happy to be called the mother-taught because he had been educated in philosophy by his mother [Arete] alone. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 143)

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1 Pleasure 

Young Aristippos clearly defined the end as living pleasurably, introducing the idea that pleasure is connected with motion (...) our constitution has three possible states, one which we suffer pain, which may be compared to a storm at a sea, another which may be compared to a gentle rocking of the waves, and finally a third state which is intermediate in nature, in which we nether suffer pain nor enjoy pleasure, this being comparable to a calm sea. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 145)

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Gegasians 

Gegesians: they supposed that nothing is pleasant or unpleasant by nature, and as a result of a deficiency, or nobility, or surfeit, some can find pleasure and others displeasure in the same thing. (Diogenes - Oxford p.150)

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Hegesias

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1 Best option 

Hegesias of Cyrene (Death persuader); he said friendship nor gratitude exist (...) a person who has need of things offers gratitude (...) for the foolish, life is a good thing, while for the sage, death is, for which reason some have called him the death-persuador. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 151)

Hegesias - direst pessimism; concluding that a predominance of pleasure cannot generally be assured, he came to believe that suicide can often be the best option in life, and so came to be known as “death persuader” (Diogenes - Oxford p. xxiv)

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2 Evils 

He portrayed the evils of life in such a vivid manner that, once he had introduced such miserable ideas of the human (...) he inspired many of them with the desire to seek voluntary death. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 151)

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3 Death

Death separates us from bad things and not from good, and it was this thought the Hegesias developed with such eloquence that kind Pdolemy had to forbid him from speaking about the matter in his lectures because many of his pupils resolved to commit suicide after hear having heard of him. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 151)

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4 Book  (The Man Who Starved himself to death)

The book of Hegesias that I refer to is called The man who starved himself to death; it tells how a man set out to starve himself to death, and when his friends tried to restrain him, he responded by enumerating all the miseries of human life. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 151)

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Bion 

Bion: was a citizen of Borysthenes. His father, because he defrauded the customs in some way, was sold into slavery along with his family. Being a not unattractive young man, I was bought by a rhetorician, who left me his entire property at his death. And I burnt his books, scraped together all my resources, and came to Athens, where I turned to philosophy. This is the lineage, this is the blood, of which I boast of having sprung. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 105)

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1 Free Man 

Slaves who are of good character are free men, while free men who are of bad character are slaves to many a desire. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 108)

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2 Defense on Poverty 

Would not poverty, he says, be the first to say “Why do you attack me, man?, Like a slave who pleads his cause with his master after having taken refuge at an altar, “Why are you attacking me? Have I stolen anything from you? Don’t I fulfill your every order? Don’t I regularly bring you my earnings?” Could no Poverty say to her accuser, “Why are you attacking me? Have you ever been deprived of anything of value because of me? Such as moral wisdom? Justice? Courage? Surely you do not lack anything that you really need? Aren’t the roadsides full of wild vegetables, and the springs full of water? And don’t I offer you as many beds as there are places on earth? And leaves for your bedclothes? It is impossible for you to live happily in my company? Don’t you see old women chattering mealy away as they eat barley-cake? Don’t I provide you with hunger as a cheap and excellent seasoning for your food? Isn’t it the case that those who are hungry eat with the most pleasure and have the least need of appetizers? And those who are thirsty drink with the most pleasure and yearn the least for a drink that does not lie at hand? Who is it, then who hungers for cakes or thirsts for fine chain wine? Isn’t it true that people seek such things through sheer self-indulgence? Don’t I provide you with housing at no expense, the baths in winter, the temples in summer? And what finer in winter, the temples in summer? And what finer house could you have in summer, says Diogenes, than the Partheon that I have, so well-arrive and so magnificent?”If Poverty were to speak like this, what could you say in response? I think for my part that I would be left speechless. But we always blame anything other than our own perversity and bad nature, accusing old age, poverty, circumstances, the day, the hour, the place; and Diogenes thus claimed to have heard the voice of vice accusing herself and saying,” No one other than I myself are to blame for all the ills. Most people, however, are lacking in sense and ascribe the blame not to themselves but to things outside. It is like the bite that one gets when one takes hold of a wild beast, says Bion; if you grasp a snake by its middle, you will get bitten, but if you seize it by the head, nothing bad will happen to you. And likewise, he says, the pain, the pain that you may suffer as a result of things outside yourself depends on how you apprehend them, and if you apprehend them in the same way as Socrates, you will feel no pain, but if you take them in any other way, you will suffer, not on account of the things themselves, but of your own character and false opinions. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 107)

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3 Luxury 

Bion: He was a man of expensive taste, and would thus move from one city to another, sometimes contriving to put on quite a show. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 106)

Bion said that it is absurd for people to strive for riches, which, fortune bestows, avarice guards, and benevolence disperses. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 109)

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4 Beauty 

Bion: To those who say that beauty exercise a tyrannical power, he would say “ Oh yes, a tyranny that can be brought down by a hair. “(Diogenes - Oxford p. 112)

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5 God 

Bion says that if God punishes the children of the wicked, that is even more ridiculous than a doctor administering medicines to a son or grandson to cure the illness of his father or grandfather. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 112)

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6 Life 

Bion said: “All the affairs of human beings resemble their beginnings, and their life is no more sacred and serious then their conception, they return to nothing after having been born out of nothing.” (Diogenes - Oxford p. 117)

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7 Old age 

Bion said that old age is the dregs of life. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 113)

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8 Avarice 

Bion the sophist said that avarice is the mother-city of all evils. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 109)

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Theodoros 

Theodoros the Atheist: was a man who entirely rejected the customary beliefs about the gods. (...) He said that the world is our country. Theft, adultery, and sacrilege are justifiable on occasion, since none of these acts is foul by nature, if one puts aside the common opinion that is held about them, which is merely designed to keep that is held about them, which is merely designed to keep fools in check. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 153)

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1 God 

Theodoros banished from Athens (...) condemned for atheism and the bear the huge burden of my philosophy genius. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 155)

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2 Prostitution 

Theodoros (...) he paid for the deliverance of his prostitute companion. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 157)