person
Diogenes of Sinope
Diogenes the Cynic
also: Diogenes, Diogenes the Cynic
The founder of Cynicism, famous for his ascetic provocations. Cotta quotes his remark that the long prosperity of the pirate Harpalus was a standing witness against the gods, and his argument that the success of the wicked refutes divine power.
Reading notes
- Tusculan Disputations §1.104 Harsher was Diogenes
Diogenes of Sinope, the Cynic, who with characteristic roughness ordered his body thrown out unburied to be torn by beasts, since once dead he would feel nothing. The most extreme statement of indifference to the corpse.
- Tusculan Disputations §3.56 Here Socrates is recalled, here Diogenes
Diogenes of Sinope (c. 412-323 BC), the founder-figure of Cynicism, byword for cheerful endurance of poverty. He is paired with Socrates as a stock exemplum in consolations on bearing want.
- Tusculan Disputations §5.92 "Just now," he said, "move a little out of my sun."
The famous retort of Diogenes the Cynic to Alexander the Great, who had offered him anything he wished: he asked only that the king stop blocking his sunlight. It epitomizes the Cynic's self-sufficient contempt for wealth and power.