The Original Provocateur

Diogenes of Sinope lived in a large ceramic jar in the marketplace of Athens during the 300s BCE. He owned nothing but a cloak and a bowl — until he saw a child drinking water with cupped hands and threw the bowl away too. "A child has beaten me in simplicity," he said.

He was the most extreme of the Cynics — philosophers who believed that civilization's comforts were traps. The word "cynic" comes from the Greek for "dog-like," and Diogenes embraced it. He ate in the marketplace, relieved himself in public, and barked at people he considered foolish.