Quotation
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“Asked where he came from, he answered, 'I am a citizen of the world.'”
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 political. Asked for a city, he names the world, refusing the prestige of being from somewhere that counts. Cosmopolitan, in this sentence, means a citizen of the cosmos, not a person who collects cities. A competing reading hears a later Stoic idea read backwards onto the Cynic, since the Stoics took the word further. The report is Lives 6.63. It belongs with the Cynic attack on convention: birth, dress, and local honour are not what makes a human being. The lamp story says most people in the street do not yet count. This sentence says the relevant city is larger than Corinth or Athens. Both are biographical reports. Neither is a passport slogan, and neither is secure as a transcript.
Did Diogenes of Sinope really say this?
The library’s label is Questionable. Diogenes Laertius 6.63. The Greek is kosmopolitēs, citizen of the cosmos. The saying is Cynic tradition reported centuries later, not a line from a book of his. It is not the modern slogan about travel.
Where it comes from
Diogenes Laertius, Lives 6.63
Approximate date: anecdote written in the 3rd century CE about a 4th-century BCE figure.
How to use it
A university form that demands a single city of origin is the question he is pictured as refusing. The refusal is not advice to have no obligations to the place you live. It is a rejection of the idea that origin is the interesting fact. Quoting him on a luggage advert drops the insult to local status, which is the point of the reply.
A mindset reading
The word cosmopolitan has a history. Here it answers 'where are you from?' by changing the size of the city that counts. The habit is to keep that question attached. A general fondness for abroad is a different idea.
Understand the philosophy
Lives 6.63 records the reply in the life of Diogenes. The key word is kosmopolitēs. Later Stoics, including the school of Zeno, develop a related picture of a city of gods and humans. The Cynic version in this anecdote is sharper and ruder, and it is still an anecdote. The Alexander story and the lamp story are the other cards. A fourth scene was not invented to make a book he did not write.
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FAQ
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is political. Asked for a city, he names the world, refusing the prestige of being from somewhere that counts. Cosmopolitan, in this sentence, means a citizen of the cosmos, not a person who collects cities. A competing reading hears a later Stoic idea read backwards onto the Cynic, since the Stoics took the word further. The report is Lives 6.63. It belongs with the Cynic attack on convention: birth, dress, and local honour are not what makes a human being. The lamp story says most people in the street do not yet count. This sentence says the relevant city is larger than Corinth or Athens. Both are biographical reports. Neither is a passport slogan, and neither is secure as a transcript.
Did Diogenes of Sinope really say this?
Questionable. Diogenes Laertius 6.63. The Greek is kosmopolitēs, citizen of the cosmos. The saying is Cynic tradition reported centuries later, not a line from a book of his. It is not the modern slogan about travel.
Which work is it in?
Diogenes Laertius, Lives 6.63 Approximate date: anecdote written in the 3rd century CE about a 4th-century BCE figure.