Wikiquote:Transwiki/Anecdotes about Diogenes preserved by Clement of Alexandria

Template:Header Template:Move to wikiquote

  • “For what else is luxury than the voluptuous gluttony and the superfluous abundance of those who are abandoned to self-indulgence? Diogenes writes significantly in a tragedy:—

    Who to the pleasures of effeminate
    And filthy luxury attached in heart,
    Wish not to undergo the slightest toil.

    And what follows, expressed indeed in foul language, but in a manner worthy of the voluptuaries.” — Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, ii. 20


  • “Diogenes accordingly remarked well to one who wondered at finding a serpent coiled round a pestle: "Don't wonder; for it would have been more surprising if you had seen the pestle coiled round the serpent, and the serpent straight."” — Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, vii. 4


  • “There are many, too, that dread inscriptions set up. Very cleverly Diogenes, on finding in the house of a bad man the inscription, "Hercules, for victory famed, dwells here; let nothing bad enter," remarked, "And how shall the master of the house go in?"” — Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, vii. 4


  • “For I shall speak of the land dog and the sea dog, and the constellation in heaven, and of Diogenes too, and all the other dogs in order.” — Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, viii. 4


  • “Diogenes, when he was being sold, chiding like a teacher one of these degenerate creatures, said very manfully, "Come, youngster, buy for yourself a man," chastising his meretriciousness by an ambiguous speech.” — Clement of Alexandria, Paedagogus, iii. 3


Template:PD-1923