Socrates Quotes

“You never know a line is crooked unless you have a straight one to put next to it.”

“An unexamined life is a life of no account.”

“It is not living that matters, but living rightly.”

“Virtue does not come from wealth, but wealth, and every other good thing which men have comes from virtue.”

“Wars and revolutions and battles are due simply and solely to the body and its desires. All wars are undertaken for the acquisition of wealth; and the reason why we have to acquire wealth is the body, because we are slaves in its service.”

“It is not the purpose of a juryman's office to give justice as a favor to whoever seems good to him, but to judge according to law, and this he has sworn to do.”

“The right way to begin is to pay attention to the young, and make them just as good as possible.”

“Do not do to others what angers you if done to you by others.”

“This is...self-knowled ge-for a man to know what he knows, and what he does not know.”

“Regard your good name as the richest jewel you can possibly be possessed of - for credit is like fire; when once you have kindled it you may easily preserve it, but if you once extinguish it, you will find it an arduous task to rekindle it again. The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.”

“When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.”

“There is a doctrine whispered in secret that a man is a prisoner who has no right to open the door and run away; this is a great mystery which I do not quite understand.”

“Whenever, therefore, people are deceived and form opinions wide of the truth, it is clear that the error has slid into their minds through the medium of certain resemblances to that truth.”

“To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.”

“The same wind is blowing, and yet one of us may be cold and the other not.”

“Let the questions be the curriculum.”

“Only the knowledge that comes from inside is the real Knowledge”

“Not by wisdom do they [poets] make what they compose, but by a gift of nature and an inspiration similar to that of the diviners and the oracles.”

“Remember what is unbecoming to do is also unbecoming to speak of.”

“To fear death, gentlemen, is no other than to think oneself wise when one is not, to think one knows what one does not know.”

“The highest realms of thought are impossible to reach without first attaining an understanding of compassion.”

“Nothing very new. By taking good care of yourselves you are of service to me and my family as well as yourselves, no matter what you do, even if you don't think so at present. But if you neglect yourselves and are unwilling to live, as though following tracks, in accordance with what we now say and have said in the past too, then no matter how much or how seriously you agree with me at present you will accomplish next to nothing.”

“The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they alone knew everything and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with them. As for girls, they are forward, immodest and unwomanly in speech, behaviour and dress.”

“What most counts is not merely to live, but to live right.”

“I am very conscious that I am not wise at all.”