A Short History of Greek Philosophy / THE INCOMPLETE SOCRATICS / ANTISTHENES AND THE CYNICS

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His chief pupil and successor was the famous Diogenes, a native of Sinope, a Greek colony on the Euxine Sea. He even bettered the instructions of his master in the matter of extreme frugality of living, claiming that he was a true follower of Hercules in preferring independence to every other good. The tale of his living in a cask or tub is well known. His theory was that the peculiar privilege of the gods consisted in their need of nothing; men approached nearest the life of the gods in needing as little as possible.

Many other sayings of one or other teacher are quoted, all tending to the same conclusion. For example, “I had rather be mad than enjoying myself!” “Follow the pleasures that come after pains, not those which bring pains in their train.” “There are pains that are useless, there are pains that are natural: the wise choose the latter, and thus find happiness even through pain. For the very contempt of pleasure comes with practice to be the highest pleasure.” “When I wish a treat,” says Antisthenes, “I do not go and buy it at great cost in the marketplace; I find my storehouse of pleasures in the soul.”

The life of the wise man, therefore, was a training of mind and body to despise pleasure and attain independence. In this way virtue was teachable, and could be so acquired as to become an inseparable possession. The man who had thus attained to wisdom, not of words, but of deeds, was, as it were, in an impregnable fortress that could neither crumble into ruin nor be lost by treachery. And so Antisthenes, being asked what was the most essential point of learning, answered, “To unlearn what is evil.”

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