Socrates Quotes

Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.

It is best and easiest not to discredit others but to prepare oneself to be as good as possible.

Obligation sends the children to bed on time, but love tucks the covers in around their necks and passes out kisses and hugs. Yesterday is about experience; tomorrow is about hope; today is about transitioning from one to the other. The happiest people on earth don't have the best of everything... they make the best of everything I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.

There is no illness of the body except for the mind

If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.

The comic and the tragic lie inseparably close, like light and shadow.

All thinking begins with wondering

Let he who would move the world, first complete an environmental impact assessment and a 90-day public comment period.

When you want wisdom and insight as badly as you want to breathe, it is then you shall have it.

Since all of us desire to be happy, and since we evidently become so on account of our use—that is our good use—of other things, and since knowledge is what provides this goodness of use and also good fortune, every man must, as seems plausible, prepare himself by every means for this: to be as wise as possible. Right?

A man should inure himself to voluntary labor, and not give up to indulgence and pleasure, as they beget no good constitution of body nor knowledge of mind.

Not I, but the city teaches.

For this fear of death is indeed the pretense of wisdom, and not real wisdom, being the appearance of knowing the unknown; since no one knows whether death, which they in their fear apprehend to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good.

How many things are there which I do not want.

The duller eye may often see a thing sooner than the keener.

There is no possession more valuable than a good and faithful friend.

It seems that God took away the minds of poets that they might better express His.

Nobody knows anything, but I, knowing nothing, am the smartest man in the world.

I only know how little I know

Wisdom adorneth riches and casteth a shadow over poverty.

I am wiser than this man, for neither of us appears to know anything great and good; but he fancies he knows something, although he knows nothing; whereas I, as I do not know anything, so I do not fancy I do. In this trifling particular, then, I appear to be wiser than he, because I do not fancy I know what I do not know.

True perfection is a bold quest to seek. Only the willing and true of heart will seek the betterment of many.

Whenever a number of individuals have a common name, we assume them to have also a corresponding idea or form.

The life of which meaning one never ponders is not worth living

I desire only to know the truth, and to live as well as I can...And, to the utmost of my power, I exhort all other men to do the same...I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly conflict.

If one knows what is right, he will do it; nobody wants to be evil

People learn more on their own rather than being force fed.

If I tell you that I would be disobeying the god and on that account it is impossible for me to keep quiet, you won't be persuaded by me, taking it that I am ionizing. And if I tell you that it is the greatest good for a human being to have discussions every day about virtue and the other things you hear me talking about, examining myself and others, and that the unexamined life is not livable for a human being, you will be even less persuaded.

Understanding a question is half an answer.

Is it not, then, better to be ridiculous and friendly than clever and hostile?

If a man comes to the door of poetry untouched by the madness of the Muses, believing that technique alone will make him a good poet, he and his sane compositions never reach perfection, but are utterly eclipsed by the performances of the inspired madman.

Exercise till the mind feels delight in reposing from the fatigue.

Only the extremely ignorant or the extremely intelligent can resist change.

We are what we think we are

The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.

To find yourself, think for yourself.

Life without enquiry is not worth living for a man.

Nothing is to be preferred before justice.

Such as thy words are, such will thy affections be esteemed; and such will thy deeds be as thy affections and such thy life as thy deeds.

I am a citizen, not of Athens, or Greece, but of the world.

I love to go and see all the things I am happy without.

Death offers mankind a full view of truth.

Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued." "It is not living that matters, but living rightly. The unexamined life is not worth living.

Wealth does not bring about excellence (aka areté), but excellence (aka areté) brings about wealth and all other public and private blessings for men.

Happiness is unrepented pleasure.

If what you want to tell me is neither True nor Good nor even Useful, why tell it to me at all

Ordinary people seem not to realize that those who really apply themselves in the right way to philosophy are directly and of their own accord preparing themselves for dying and death.

The invention of writing will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory. Their trust in writing, produced by external characters which are no part of themselves, will discourage the use of their own memory within them. You have invented an elixir not of memory, but of reminding; and you offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom.

If he who does not know kept silent, discord would cease.

Who knows if to live is to be dead, and to be dead, to live? And we really, it may be, are dead; in fact I once heard sages say that we are now dead, and the body is our tomb.

It was far too cold. The second I got out I had this incredible headache, I'm just not used to it. The last time I saw snow was years and years ago.

The envious person grows lean with the fatness of their neighbor.

The bad one is that way because of the ignorance, therefore he can be healed with wisdom.

Living well and beautifully and justly are all one thing.

There are beds and tables in the world - plenty of them, are there not? But there are only two ideas or forms of them - one the idea of a bed, the other of a table.

YOU ARE NOT ONLY GOOD TO YOURSELF, BUT THE CAUSE OF GOODNESS IN OTHERS

Do not be angry with me if I tell you the truth

Besides, it is a shame to let yourself grow old through neglect before seeing how you can develop the maximum beauty and strength of body; and you can have this experience if your are negligent, because these things don't normally happen by themselves.

He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.

The man who is truly wise knows that he knows very little.