Of what use is a philosopher who doesn't hurt anybody's feelings?
DiogenesRead
It is the privilege of the gods to want nothing, and of godlike men to want little.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Desiring little is a mark of greatness and divine nature.
This quote by Diogenes reflects the idea that true fulfillment comes from minimizing one's desires. It implies that those who possess divine qualities or godlike traits are able to find contentment with less, suggesting that the fewer possessions or desires one has, the closer one is to a transcendent state of being.
Themes
DesiresContentmentSimplicityGreatnessFulfillment
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about minimalist living, one could use this quote to emphasize the importance of reducing material desires.
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
Man is to man either a god or a wolf.
Desiderius ErasmusRead
Regarded in isolation, an idea may be quite insignificant, and venturesome in the extreme, but it may acquire importance from an idea which follows it; perhaps, in a certain collocation with other ideas, which may seem equally absurd, it may be capable of furnishing a very serviceable link.
Friedrich SchillerRead
Satan promises the best, but pays with the worst; he promises honor, and pays with disgrace; he promises pleasure, and pays with pain; he promises profit, and pays with loss, he promises life, and pays with death. But God pays as he promises; all his payments are made in pure gold.
Thomas BrooksRead
Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect, as well as for the star. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.
Albert EinsteinRead
The essence of the question is the opening up, and keeping open, of possibilities.
Hans-Georg GadamerRead
The Universe is very, very big. It also loves a paradox. For example, it has some extremely strict rules. Rule number one: Nothing lasts forever. Not you or your family or your house or your planet or the sun. It is an absolute rule. Therefore when someone says that their love will never die, it means that their love is not real, for everything that is real dies. Rule number two: Everything lasts forever.
Craig FergusonRead