Discourses - Book III   

care of this, seek for good here.
"And how is it possible that a man who has nothing, who is naked,
houseless, without a hearth, squalid, without a slave, without a city,
can pass a life that flows easily?" See, God has sent you a man to
show you that it is possible. "Look at me, who am without a city,
without a house, without possessions, without a slave; I sleep on
the ground; I have no wife, no children; no praetorium, but only the
earth and heavens, and one poor cloak. And what do I want? Am I not
without sorrow? am I not without fear? Am I not free? When did any
of you see me failing in the object of my desire? or ever falling into
that which I would avoid? did I ever blame God or man? did I ever
accuse any man? did any of you ever see me with sorrowful countenance?
And how do I meet with those whom you are afraid of and admire? Do not
I treat them like slaves? Who, when he sees me, does not think that he
sees his king and master?"
This is the language of the Cynics, this their character, this is
their purpose. You say "No": but their characteristic is the little
wallet, and staff, and great jaws: the devouring of all that you
give them, or storing it up, or the abusing unseasonably all whom they
meet, or displaying their shoulder as a fine thing. Do you see how
you are going, to undertake so great a business? First take a
mirror: look at your shoulders; observe your loins, your thighs. You
are going, my man, to be enrolled as a combatant in the Olympic games,
no frigid and miserable contest. In the Olympic games a man is not
permitted to be conquered only and to take his departure; but first he
must be disgraced in the sight of all the world, not in the sight of
Athenians only, or of Lacedaemonians or of Nicopolitans; next he
must be whipped also if he has entered into the contests rashly: and
before being whipped, he must suffer thirst and heat, and swallow much
dust.
Reflect more carefully, know thyself, consult the divinity,
without God attempt nothing; for if he shall advise you, be assured
that he intends you to become great or to receive many blows. For this
very amusing quality is conjoined to a Cynic: he must be flogged
like an ass, and when he is flogged, he must love those who flog
him, as if he were the father of all, and the brother of all. You
say "No"; but if a man flogs you, stand in the public place and call
out, "Caesar, what do I suffer in this state of peace under thy
protection? Let us bring the offender before the proconsul." But
what is Caesar to a Cynic, or what is a proconsul, or what is any
other except him who sent the Cynic down hither, and whom he serves,
namely Zeus? Does he call upon any other than Zeus? Is he not
convinced that, whatever he suffers, it is Zeus who is exercising him?
Hercules when he was exercised by Eurystheus did not think that he was
wretched, but without hesitation he attempted to execute all that he
had in hand. And is he who is trained to the contest and exercised
by Zeus going to call out and to be vexed, he who is worthy to bear
the sceptre of Diogenes? Hear what Diogenes says to the passers-by
when he is in a fever, "Miserable wretches, will you not stay? but are
you going so long a journey to Olympia to see the destruction or the