The account contrasts useful skilled work with credulity and vanity. It is indirect speech with conditions attached, rather than this free-standing one-line quotation.
“Man is the most intelligent of the animals - and the most silly” — Diogenes of Sinope
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Provenance
What the source establishes
Documented trail
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers 6.24, English text at Wikisource.
Evidence
Attribution and wording limits stated below
he deemed man the most intelligent of all animals
A short excerpt from the cited source; it may differ from the popular wording above.
Read the source ↗ — The account contrasts useful skilled work with credulity and vanity. It is indirect speech with conditions attached, rather than this free-standing one-line quotation.
The origin of the compressed English wording is not identified; the ancient anecdote does not by itself license a modern rendering.
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~
Popular creditDiogenes paraphrase
The account contrasts useful skilled work with credulity and vanity. It is indirect speech with conditions attached, rather than this free-standing one-line quotation. Source ↗
✓The account contrasts useful skilled work with credulity and vanity. It is indirect speech with conditions attached, rather than this free-standing one-line quotation. Evidence ↗
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Diogenes of Sinope is identified in the cited material as the ancient cynic philosopher. This page distinguishes the documented source trail from a claim of verbatim personal testimony.
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The primary source (Chicago)
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers 6.24, English text at Wikisource.
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Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Man is the most intelligent of the animals - and the most silly’?” Last verified 9 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/man-is-the-most-intelligent-of-the-animals-and-the-most/