So said Diogenes of Sinope, famed as the man who lived in a barrel. He Was a Greek philosopher and father of the cynic school of philosophy.
He spent his life demonstrating how one could be happy without material possessions and teaching people to see the futility of transient attachments. Like Socrates before him Diogenes was a gadfly continually challenging the social conventions and expectations of his day.
Life lessons from a dog
“Diogenes believed human beings live artificially and hypocritically and would do well to study the dog. Besides performing natural bodily functions in public without unease, a dog will eat anything, and make no fuss about where to sleep. Dogs live in the present without anxiety, and have no use for the pretensions of abstract philosophy. In addition to these virtues, dogs are thought to know instinctively who is friend and who is foe. Unlike human beings who either dupe others or are duped, dogs will give an honest bark at the truth” – Wikipedia
Sayings attributed to Diogenes
I threw my cup away when I saw a child drinking from his hands at the trough.
He has the most who is most content with the least.
Dogs and philosophers do the greatest good and get the fewest rewards.
We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less.
The sun, too, shines into cesspools and is not polluted.
It is the privilege of the gods to want nothing, and of godlike men to want little.
Of a rich man who was mean and niggardly, he said, "That man does not possess his estate, but his estate possesses him."
I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.
It is said that Diogenes once met the great king Alexander who excited to meet the famous philosopher asked him what he could do to help. Diogenes answer was very revealing:
Step aside so I may see the sun.
Upon hearing this great Alexander said to his soldiers that if he had to be anyone other than Alexander he would be Diogenes.
WRDeer 