The best known of the Cynics was Diogenes, a pupil of Antisthenes, who reputedly lived in a barrel and owned nothing but a cloak, a stick, and a bread bag. (So it wasn’t easy to steal his happiness from him!) One day while he was sitting beside his barrel enjoying the sun, he was visited by Alexander the Great. The emperor stood before him and asked if there was anything he could do for him. Was there anything he desired? ‘Yes,’ Diogenes replied. ‘Stand to one side. You’re blocking the sun.’ Thus Diogenes showed that he was no less happy and rich than the great man before him. He had
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