Asked where he came from, he said, "I am a citizen of the world."

He was breakfasting in the marketplace, and the bystanders gathered round him with cries of "dog." "It is you who are dogs," cried he, "when you stand round and watch me at my breakfast."

When asked why people give to beggars but not to philosophers, he replied, 'Because they expect they may become lame and blind, but never that they will become philosophers.'

To the question what wine he found pleasant to drink, he replied, "That for which other people pay."

He once begged alms of a statue, and, when asked why he did so, replied, "To get practice in being refused."

When some one reminded him that the people of Sinope had sentenced him to exile, he said, "And I sentenced them to stay at home."

When scolded for masturbating in public, he said "I wish it were as easy to banish hunger by rubbing my belly."

Once he saw the officials of a temple leading away some one who had stolen a bowl belonging to the treasurers, and said, "The great thieves are leading away the little thief."

Perdiccas threatened to put him to death unless he came to him, "That's nothing wonderful," Diogenes said, "for a beetle or a tarantula would do the same."

He was seized and dragged off to King Philip, and being asked who he was, replied, "A spy upon your insatiable greed."