Quotation
Last reviewed:
“I am looking for a human being.”
Diogenes of Sinope · Cynicism · Ancient · anecdote written in the 3rd century CE about a 4th-century BCE figure
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading of the story is a rebuke: the people in the street do not yet count as human in the sense that matters, rational and unashamed. A competing reading treats the whole scene as a later Cynic legend, centuries after Diogenes, so the sentence is a school's joke rather than a man's afternoon. Diogenes Laertius tells it in the third century CE. The lamp in daylight is the point, and the evidence that it happened is thin.
Did Diogenes of Sinope really say this?
The library’s label is Questionable. A famous story: Diogenes walks with a lit lamp in daylight and says he is looking for a human being. The source is centuries later. Treat it as Cynic legend with a point, not as a verified quotation.
Where it comes from
Diogenes Laertius, Lives 6.41, the lamp anecdote
Approximate date: anecdote written in the 3rd century CE about a 4th-century BCE figure.
How to use it
Use the story on the bus, not as a licence to despise the carriage: what standard of a real person are you carrying when you sneer at the loud phone call, and would you pass it? The anecdote is a mirror for status-hunger. It is a poor warrant for contempt of everyone else in the queue.
A mindset reading
Anecdotes teach a stance, and they are weak evidence of what was said on a given afternoon. The habit is to take the moral pressure and leave the historical claim marked as legend. A good joke from a late biographer is still a late biographer's joke.
Understand the philosophy
The story answers what the Cynics thought a human being was. Cynicism here means the dog-like life: natural needs met without shame, and pretence attacked in public. Diogenes is its saint because the stories perform the doctrine. 'A human being' means someone living that way, not a member of the species walking past.
- virtue
- society
FAQ
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading of the story is a rebuke: the people in the street do not yet count as human in the sense that matters, rational and unashamed. A competing reading treats the whole scene as a later Cynic legend, centuries after Diogenes, so the sentence is a school's joke rather than a man's afternoon. Diogenes Laertius tells it in the third century CE. The lamp in daylight is the point, and the evidence that it happened is thin.
Did Diogenes of Sinope really say this?
Questionable. A famous story: Diogenes walks with a lit lamp in daylight and says he is looking for a human being. The source is centuries later. Treat it as Cynic legend with a point, not as a verified quotation.
Which work is it in?
Diogenes Laertius, Lives 6.41, the lamp anecdote Approximate date: anecdote written in the 3rd century CE about a 4th-century BCE figure.