Quotes from Andrew Arndt’s Mother

He is the security you seek in Money

He is the high you seek in Alcohol

He is the ecstasy you seek in sex

He is the health you seek in doctors

He is the song you seek in Music

He is the dance you seek in performance

He is the beauty you seek in traveling

He is the wisdom you seek in books

He is the peace you seek in worry

It is Jesus that you seek

Quotes from the Philosopher Diogenes

Alexander the Great was reported to have said, “Had I not been Alexander, I should have liked to be Diogenes.” Once, while Diogenes was sunning himself, Alexander came up to him and offered to grant him any request. “Stand out of my light,” he replied.

(There are many other references to this incident, principally Plutarch, Life of Alexander, XIV.1–5.)

When asked why he went about with a lamp in broad daylight, Diogenes confessed, “I am looking for an honest man.” Seeing a young man blush, he remarked that it was the complexion of virtue.

Why do people give to beggars, he was asked, but not to philosophers? “Because they think they may one day be lame or blind, but never expect that they will turn to philosophy.”

To a young man who complained that he was ill suited to study philosophy, Diogenes said “Why then do you live, if you do not care to live well?” Of grammarians, he was astonished that they desire to learn everything about the misfortunes of Odysseus but nothing about their own.

Of mathematicians, that they keep their eyes on the heavens and overlook what is at their feet. Of orators, that they speak of justice but never practice it.

When asked why he alone praised an indifferent harp player, Diogenes replied “because he plays the harp and does not steal.”

When asked what wine he found most pleasant to drink, Diogenes replied, “That for which other people pay.” 

Photo of G.K. Chesterton and his wife who I owe some of these compilations to.