Diogenes Rebukes Alexander
"Stand a little out of my sun." — Diogenes to Alexander the Great, as recounted by Diogenes Laërtius.
Unknown — "Tritoness or Scylla Relief Applique" (late 200s BCE), CC0
The king and the cynic
Alexander the Great found Diogenes sunbathing in a barrel. 'Ask anything,' the conqueror said. Diogenes didn’t look up—just replied, 'Stand a little out of my sun.' The scene comes to us through Diogenes Laërtius’s Lives of the Eminent Philosophers.
A philosopher’s power move
To snub the most powerful man alive without fear—this was Diogenes’ philosophy, lived out loud. Where others courted kings, Diogenes reminded everyone that freedom meant needing nothing, not even flattery.
When Alexander the Great offered to grant any wish, Diogenes the Cynic only wanted his sunlight back. Diogenes Laërtius includes this story in Lives of the Eminent Philosophers (Book VI, 38), and it endures as the ultimate snub to power.
