Of what use is a philosopher who doesn't hurt anybody's feelings?
DiogenesRead
Man is the most intelligent of the animals - and the most silly.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the dual nature of humanity, possessing great intelligence yet often acting foolishly.
Diogenes' quote reflects the complexity of human nature, emphasizing that while humans are capable of profound intelligence and reasoning, they are also prone to foolishness and irrational behavior. This duality serves as a reminder that intelligence does not guarantee wisdom or common sense, revealing the contradictions inherent in the human experience.
Themes
IntelligenceFoolishnessHuman NatureWisdomContradiction
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the paradoxes of human behavior.
More from Diogenes
All quotes βThe art of being a slave is to rule one's master.
DiogenesRead
As a matter of self-preservation, a man needs good friends or ardent enemies, for the former instruct him and the latter take him to task.
DiogenesRead
I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.
DiogenesRead
We come into the world alone and we die alone. Why, in life, should we be any less alone?
DiogenesRead
All things are in common among friends.
DiogenesRead
Similar quotes
Science and religion, religion and science, put it as it may, they are the two sides of the same glass, through which we see darkly until these two focus together, reveal the truth.
Pearl S. BuckRead
I think my mission, if I could call it that, as a storyteller is to try and find ways to show how similar we are and not how different we are.
Taylor SheridanRead
Perhaps no promise in life is more reassuring than that promise of divine assistance and spiritual guidance in times of need. It is a gift freely given from heaven, a gift that we need from our earliest youth through the very latest days of our lives.
Howard W. HunterRead
Thou madest man, he knows not why, he thinks he was not made to die.
Alfred Lord TennysonRead
Society cannot continue to disable themselves through their need to categorize people or make assumptions as to another individual's abilities.
Evelyn GlennieRead
When it comes to religion, we're not two sides of the same coin, and you don't get to put your unreason up on the same shelf with my reason. Your stuff has to go over there, on the shelf with Zeus and Thor and the Kraken, with the stuff that is not evidence-based, stuff that religious people never change their mind about, no matter what happens.
Bill MaherRead