quote from diogenes

Against fate, I put courage; against custom, nature; against passion, reason.

- Diogenes of Sinope

This shows the vast degree to which our popular notion of 'reason' differs from that of the ancient Greeks. In the quote, Diogenes associates reason with nature and courage, pitting it against custom and fate. Reason, in Diogenes view, appears indeterminate, free, a means of spiritual liberation transcending human convention. Today we popularly view reason as a means of suppression/oppression, a product of human convention intended to serve authoritarian interests. Could it be, instead, that the notion of reason has been turned against its more original meanings by those very interests?

quote from Herakleitos and Diogenes, translated by Guy Davenport, 1979, Grey Fox Press