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diogenes_of_sinope:diogenes_laertius_book_2_68

Diogenes of Sinope | Diogenes Laertius, Book 2 §68

<blockquote>Diogenes, washing the dirt from his vegetables, saw him passing and jeered at him in these terms, “If you had learnt to make these your diet, you would not have paid court to kings,” to which his rejoinder was, “And if you knew how to associate with men, you would not be washing vegetables.” Being asked what he had gained from philosophy, he replied, “The ability to feel at ease in any society.” Being reproached for his extravagance, he said, “If it were wrong to be extravagant, it would not be in vogue at the festivals of the gods.”

Being once asked what advantage philosophers have, he replied, “Should all laws be repealed, we shall go on living as we do now.”

Source: Lives of the Eminent Philosophers (1925) by Diogenes Laërtius, translated by Robert Drew Hicks </blockquote>

diogenes_of_sinope/diogenes_laertius_book_2_68.txt · Last modified: 2014/01/14 23:19 by 127.0.0.1

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