If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.
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Where's the God?
[It was in Corinth that a meeting between Alexander the Great and Diogenes is supposed to have taken place.[26] The accounts of Plutarch and Diogenes Laërtius recount that they exchanged only a few words: while Diogenes was relaxing in the sunlight in the morning, Alexander, thrilled to meet the famous philosopher, asked if there was any favour he might do for him. Diogenes replied, 'Yes, stand out of my sunlight'. Alexander then declared, 'If I were not Alexander, then I should wish to be Diogenes.'[27] In another account of the conversation, Alexander found the philosopher looking attentively at a pile of human bones. Diogenes explained, 'I am searching for the bones of your father but cannot distinguish them from those of a slave.'
A pregnant
Mom
Runs
in
the
Gaza
strip
to
catch
the
overhead
Bombs?
nimal dunuhinga
poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
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a mouse teaches Diogenes
You see Diogenes living in the slums. He lives in a barrel. This is the man even Alexander the Great admires. So it makes you wonder about Diogenes.
So you pretend to be there quite by accident and you ask: “Diogenes…Who was your teacher? ”
“A mouse was my teacher, ” says Diogenes.
You are quite confused. And you say: 'A mouse is your teacher? And how is that, Diogenes? '
“Well, most exquisite Sir, ” says Diogenes to you. “Most cultured Sir, ” he says. “I had no home and I was in the streets. I almost killed myself. Then I saw mouse. Mouse ran around and looked for food and it found some and I observed mouse for over two days. And I realized how resourceful mouse was. And then I said to myself: ‘Learn of the mouse, Diogenes- and all will be well.’ And so I learned of mouse. And every time I have a problem, I simply ask myself: ‘How will mouse solve this? ’ And so mouse became my teacher. And now, most Exquisite Sir, I have a problem. You. I want to get rid of you and I ask myself: ‘How would mouse solve this problem? ’ He would bite…”
You listen to this and you are afraid – and you run. And Diogenes has done well; he has learned well from his teacher. And you can hear him shouting to you: “By the way, who was your teacher? ”
poem by Raj Arumugam
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When Alexander the Great visited Diogenes and asked whether he could do anything for the famed teacher, Diogenes replied 'Only stand out of my light.' Perhaps some day we shall know how to heighten creativity. Until then, one of the best things we can do for creative men and women is to stand out of their light.
quote by John W. Gardner
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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If I were not Alexander, I should wish to be Diogenes.
quote by Alexander the Great
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Diogenes And The Philosophy Of Motion
And Diogenes is in his corner
and this young man
new Philosophy Graduate
of the Academy comes up to him
and sits beside him on the steps
of Raphael's School of Athens
and the young man says to Diogenes:
'There is no such thing as motion, Diogenes.
I shall prove to you through complex philosophy.'
And Diogenes gets up
and he walks away from
the School of Athens
and he goes to his tub
at the end of the marketplace
poem by Raj Arumugam
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True contentment depends not upon what we have; a tub was large enough for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexander.
quote by Charles Caleb Colton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Diogenes On Fate
Diogenes is walking past
the crowds and the stalls
in the market
the butcher has caught a man
stealing meat
'Oh, ' says the thief
'It's my fate to steal -
do not punish me! '
'Oh, ' says Diogenes,
'if it's your fate to steal
then it's your fate to be beaten! '
And Diogenes beats him
poem by Raj Arumugam
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'Bury me on my face,' said Diogenes and when he was asked why, he replied, 'Because in a little while everything will be turned upside down.'
quote by Laertius Diogenes
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Genial Impulse
THUS roll I, never taking ease,
My tub, like Saint Diogenes,
Now serious am, now seek to please;
Now love and hate in turn one sees;
The motives now are those, now these;
Now nothings, now realities.
Thus roll I, never taking ease,
My tub, like Saint Diogenes.
poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Forgiven
I found a little beetle; so that Beetle was his name,
And I called him Alexander and he answered just the same.
I put him in a match-box, and I kept him all the day ...
And Nanny let my beetle out -
Yes, Nanny let my beetle out -
She went and let my beetle out -
And Beetle ran away.
She said she didn't mean it, and I never said she did,
She said she wanted matches and she just took off the lid,
She said that she was sorry, but it's difficult to catch
An excited sort of beetle you've mistaken for a match.
She said that she was sorry, and I really mustn't mind,
As there's lots and lots of beetles which she's certain we could find,
If we looked about the garden for the holes where beetles hid -
And we'd get another match-box and write BEETLE on the lid.
We went to all the places which a beetle might be near,
And we made the sort of noises which a beetle likes to hear,
And I saw a kind of something, and I gave a sort of shout:
'A beetle-house and Alexander Beetle coming out!'
It was Alexander Beetle I'm as certain as can be,
And he had a sort of look as if he thought it must be Me,
And he had a sort of look as if he thought he ought to say:
'I'm very very sorry that I tried to run away.'
And Nanny's very sorry too for you-know-what-she-did,
And she's writing ALEXANDER very blackly on the lid,
So Nan and Me are friends, because it's difficult to catch
An excited Alexander you've mistaken for a match.
poem by Alan Alexander Milne
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I do not know whether there are gods, but there ought to be.
He has the most who is most content with the least.
Valedictory Address to the D--n
John Alexander Frere, John,
When we were first acquent,
You lectured us as Freshmen
In the holy term of Lent;
But now you’re gettin’ bald, John,
Your end is drawing near,
And I think we’d better say "Goodbye,
John Alexander Frere."
John Alexander Frere, John,
How swiftly Time has flown!
The weeks that you refused us
Are now no more your own;
Tho’ Time was in your hand, John,
You lingered out the year,
That Grace might more abound unto
John Alexander Frere.
There’s young Monro of Trinity,
And Hunter bold of Queen’s,
Who spurn the chapel system,
And "vex the souls of Deans."
But all their petty squabbles
More ludicrous appear,
When we muse on thy departed form,
John Alexander Frere.
There’s many better man, John.
That scorns the scoffing crew,
But keeps with fond affection
The notes he got from you—
"Why he was out of College,
Till two o’clock or near,
The Senior Dean requests to know,
Yours truly, J. A. Frere."
John Alexander Frere, John,
I wonder what you mean
By mixing up your name so
With me, and with "The Dean."
Another Don may dean us,
But ne’er again, we fear,
Shall we receive such notes as yours,
John Alexander Frere.
The Lecture Room no more, John,
Shall hear thy drowsy tone,
No more shall men in Chapel
Bow down before thy throne.
But Shillington with meekness,
The oracle shall hear,
That set St. Mary's all to sleep—
John Alexander Frere.
Then once before we part, John,
Let all be clean forgot,
Our scandalous inventions,
[Thy note-lets, prized or not].
For under all conventions,
The small man lived sincere,
The kernel of the Senior Dean,
John Alexander Frere.
poem by James Clerk Maxwell
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Nothing can be produced out of nothing.
quote by Laertius Diogenes
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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No man is hurt but by himself.
quote by Diogenes of Sinope
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I know nothing, except the fact of my ignorance.
It is the privilege of the gods to want nothing, and of godlike men to want little.
Man is the most intelligent of the animals - and the most silly.
Most men are within a finger's breadth of being mad.
quote by Diogenes the Cynic
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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