Antisthenes c. 445 BC – c. 365 BC
Antisthenes of Athens was an ancient Greek philosopher of the 5th and 4th centuries BC, a student of Socrates and traditionally regarded as the founder of the Cynic school of philosophy. He taught at the Cynosarges gymnasium in Athens, possibly the source of the school's name through the Greek kunikos meaning dog-like. His ethics emphasised virtue as the only good, self-sufficiency as its outward sign, and the rejection of conventional desires for wealth, fame, and pleasure. His teaching that virtue is sufficient for happiness anticipates the central thesis of the later Stoics. Most of his many writings are lost; his ideas survive in fragments and in the report of Diogenes Laertius.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Greek
- Era
- Ancient
- Movements
- Cynicism, Ancient Greek
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Antisthenes:
“Virtue is sufficient for happiness; it requires nothing else but the strength of a Socrates.”
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Attributed to Antisthenes:
“There are only two kinds of luck in the world: the foreseen and the unforeseen.”
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Attributed to Antisthenes:
“I would rather go mad than feel pleasure.”
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Attributed to Antisthenes:
“It is the privilege of the gods to want nothing, and of godlike men to want little.”
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Attributed to Antisthenes:
“Pay attention to your enemies, for they are the first to discover your mistakes.”