Quotation
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“Alexander stood over him and said, 'Ask me for whatever you wish.' He answered, 'Stand out of my light.'”
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 is a refusal of patronage. The king offers any gift, and the reply asks him to move, because his body is blocking the sun. Rank is not a good, and it can be a nuisance. A competing reading treats the scene as a later invention, a way for Cynic teachers to show students how to talk to power. Diogenes Laertius tells it at Lives 6.38. The evidence that the afternoon happened is thin, which is why the badge stays Questionable. The point of the story is still legible. The good Diogenes is pictured as wanting is sunlight, not a favour. The lamp story, already in this library, is a different anecdote, about looking for a human being. This one is about not wanting what a king can give.
Did Diogenes of Sinope really say this?
The library’s label is Questionable. Diogenes Laertius 6.38. The meeting with Alexander is a Cynic set piece written centuries later. Treat it as a school's story with a point, not as a verified transcript. It is not the lamp story in 6.41.
Where it comes from
Diogenes Laertius, Lives 6.38
Approximate date: anecdote written in the 3rd century CE about a 4th-century BCE figure.
How to use it
A grant or a promotion that requires you to stand in someone's shadow can be refused without a speech about authenticity. The story's reply is smaller than that. It asks what the offer is blocking. It does not prove the meeting happened, and it is a poor excuse for rudeness that has no sunlight at stake.
A mindset reading
Keep the moral and the historical claim apart. The moral is that a favour can cost the thing you actually needed. The historical claim is a biography from centuries later. The badge is there so the second is not smuggled in with the first.
Understand the philosophy
Lives 6.38 is one of the Alexander anecdotes in the life of Diogenes of Sinope. The key gesture is refusing a king's gift in favour of the sun. Cynic teaching used such scenes because Diogenes wrote no surviving treatise that could be assigned instead. The lamp in daylight is 6.41 and is a separate card. Both are legends with a doctrine inside them.
- power
- freedom
FAQ
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is a refusal of patronage. The king offers any gift, and the reply asks him to move, because his body is blocking the sun. Rank is not a good, and it can be a nuisance. A competing reading treats the scene as a later invention, a way for Cynic teachers to show students how to talk to power. Diogenes Laertius tells it at Lives 6.38. The evidence that the afternoon happened is thin, which is why the badge stays Questionable. The point of the story is still legible. The good Diogenes is pictured as wanting is sunlight, not a favour. The lamp story, already in this library, is a different anecdote, about looking for a human being. This one is about not wanting what a king can give.
Did Diogenes of Sinope really say this?
Questionable. Diogenes Laertius 6.38. The meeting with Alexander is a Cynic set piece written centuries later. Treat it as a school's story with a point, not as a verified transcript. It is not the lamp story in 6.41.
Which work is it in?
Diogenes Laertius, Lives 6.38 Approximate date: anecdote written in the 3rd century CE about a 4th-century BCE figure.