Socrates

Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued.

Know thyself.

The greatest blessing granted to mankind come by way of madness, which is a divine gift.

The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.

I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think,Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.

True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.

The unexamined life is not worth living.

I examined the poets, and I look on them as people whose talent overawes both themselves and others, people who present themselves as wise men and are taken as such, when they are nothing of the sort. From poets, I moved to artists. No one was more ignorant about the arts than I; no one was more convinced that artists possessed really beautiful secrets. However, I noticed that their condition was no better than that of the poets and that both of them have the same misconceptions. Because the most skillful among them excel in their specialty, they look upon themselves as the wisest of men. In my eyes, this presumption completely tarnished their knowledge. As a result, putting myself in the place of the oracle and asking myself what I would prefer to be — what I was or what they were, to know what they have learned or to know that I know nothing — I replied to myself and to the god: I wish to remain who I am. We do not know — neither the sophists, nor the orators, nor the artists, nor I— what the True, the Good, and the Beautiful are. But there is this difference between us: although these people know nothing, they all believe they know something; whereas, I, if I know nothing, at least have no doubts about it. As a result, all this superiority in wisdom which the oracle has attributed to me reduces itself to the single point that I am strongly convinced that I am ignorant of what I do not know.

God takes away the minds of poets, and uses them as his ministers, as he also uses diviners and holy prophets, in order that we who hear them may know them to be speaking not of themselves who utter these priceless words in a state of unconsciousness, but that God himself is the speaker, and that through them he is conversing with us.

God would seem to indicate to us and not allow us to doubt that these beautiful poems are not human, or the work of man, but divine and the work of God; and that the poets are only the interpreters of the Gods. . .

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.

The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.

If the soul is immortal, it demands our care not only for that part of time which we call life, but for all time; and indeed it would seem now that it will be extremely dangerous to neglect it. If death were a release from everything, it would be a boon for the wicked, because by dying they would be released not only from the body but also from their own wickedness together with the soul; but as it is, since the soul is clearly immortal, it can have no escape of security from evil except by becoming as good and wise as it possibly can. For it takes nothing with it to the next world except its education and training. . .

. . . [R]eal wisdom is the property of God, and. . . human wisdom has little or no value.

He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.

The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our separate ways, I to die, and you to live. Which of these two is better only God knows.

Be of good cheer about death, and know this of a truth, that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.

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.

How many things can I do without?,I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled [poets] to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean.

For the poet is a light and winged and holy thing, and there is no invention in him until he has been inspired and is out of his senses, and the mind is no longer in him: when he has not attained to this state, he is powerless and is unable to utter his oracles.

. . . I have had a remarkable experience. In the past the prophetic voice to which I have become accustomed has always been my constant companion, opposing me even in quite trivial things if I was going to take the wrong course. Now something has happened to me, as you can see, which might be thought and is commonly considered to be a supreme calamity; yet neither when I left home this morning, nor when I was taking my place here in court, nor at any point in any part of my speech did the divine sign oppose me. In other discussions it has often checked me in the middle of a sentence; but this time it has never opposed me in any part of this business in anything that I have said or done. What do I suppose to be the explanation? I will tell you. I suspect that this thing that has happened to me is a blessing, and we are quite mistaken in supposing death to be an evil. I have good grounds for thinking this, because my accustomed sign could not have failed to oppose me if what I was doing had not been sure to bring some good result.

The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.

. . . [T]hose who care about their souls and do not subordinate them to the body dissociate themselves firmly from these others and refuse to accompany them on their haphazard journey; and, believing that it is wrong to oppose philosophy with her offer of liberation and purification, they turn and follow her wherever she leads. . .

. . . [T]hese people. . . are my dangerous accusers because those who hear them suppose that anyone who inquires into such matters. . . theories about the heavens. . . and everything below the earth. . . must be an atheist.

Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.

Life contains but two tragedies. One is not to get your heart’s desire the other is to get it.

If it were said that without such bones and sinews and all the rest of them I should not be able to do what I think is right, it would be true; but to say that it is because of them that I do what I am doing, and not through choice of what is best - although my actions are controlled by Mind - would be a very lax and inaccurate form of expression.

If I save my insight, I don’t attend to weakness of eyesight.

Be slow to fall into friendship, but when you are in, continue firm and constant.

Get not your friends by bare compliments, but by giving them sensible tokens of your love.

There is one way, then, in which a man can be free from all anxiety about the fate of his soul - if in life he has abandoned bodily pleasures and adornments, as foreign to his purpose and likely to do more harm than good, and has devoted himself to the pleasures of acquiring knowledge, and so by decking his soul not with a borrowed beauty but with its own - with self-control, and goodness, and courage, and liberality, and truth - has fitted himself to await his journey in the next world.

Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior.

Let him who would move the world first move himself.

It seems to me that whatever else is beautiful apart from absolute Beauty is beautiful because it partakes of that absolute Beauty, and for no other reason. . . [I]t is by Beauty that beautiful things are beautiful.

. . . [W]hen death comes to a man, the mortal part of him dies, but the immortal part retires at the approach of death and escapes unharmed and indestructible. . . [I]t is as certain as anything can be. . . that soul is immortal and imperishable, and that our souls will really exist in the next world.

A man who preserves his integrity no real, long-lasting harm can ever come.

I know one thing, that I know nothing.

By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.

. . . [S]ome of the opinions which people entertain should be respected, and others should not.

One should never do wrong in return, nor mistreat any man, no matter how one has been mistreated by him.

To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.

Be true to thine own self,I am convinced that I never wrong anyone intentionally. . .

How can you wonder your travels do you no good, when you carry yourself around with you?,wealth does not bring goodness, but goodness brings wealth and every other blessing, both to the individual and to the state,Wealth does not bring about excellence, but excellence makes wealth and everything else good for men, both individually and collectively.

The only thing I know is that I know nothing, and i am no quite sure that i know that.

The misuse of language induces evil in the soul,I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.

My friend. . . care for your psyche. . . know thyself, for once we know ourselves, we may learn how to care for ourselves" -Socrates,. . . I do not think that it is right for a man to appeal to the jury or to get himself acquitted by doing so; he ought to inform them of the facts and convince them by argument. The jury does not sit to dispense justice as a favour, but to decide where justice lies; and the oath which they have sworn is not to show favour at their own discretion, but to return a just and lawful verdict. . . Therefore you must not expect me, gentlemen, to behave towards you in a way which I consider neither reputable nor moral nor consistent with my religious duty.

. . . [F]rom me you shall hear the whole truth; not, I can assure you, gentlemen, in flowery language. . . decked out with fine words and phrases; no, what you will hear will be a straightforward speech in the first words that occur to me, confident as I am in the justice of my cause; and I do not want any of you to expect anything different.

Is it true; is it kind, or is it necessary?,We cannot live better than in seeking to become better.

. . . [T]he really important thing is not to live, but to live well. . . [a]nd to live well means the same thing as to live honourably or rightly. . .

Do you imagine that a city can continue to exist and not be turned upside down, if the legal judgments which are pronounced in it have no force but are nullified and destroyed by private persons?,A man who really fights for justice must lead a private, not a public, life if he is to survive for even a short time.

The true champion of justice, if he intends to survive even for a short time, must necessarily confine himself to private life and leave politics alone.

. . . a good man cannot be harmed either in life or in death, and that his affairs are not neglected by the gods.

. . . [I]f at the time of its release the soul is tainted and impure, because it has always associated with the body and cared for it and loved it, and has been so beguiled by the body and its passions and pleasures that nothing seems real to it but those physical things which can be touched and seen and eaten and drunk and used for sexual enjoyment; and if it is accustomed to hate and fear and avoid what is invisible and hidden from our eyes, but intelligible and comprehensible by philosophy - if the soul is in this state, do you think that it will escape independent and uncontaminated?,. . . I do not believe that the law of God permits a better man to be harmed by a worse. No doubt my accuser might put me to death or have me banished or deprived of civic rights; but even if he thinks, as he probably does (and others to, I dare say), that these are great calamities, I do not think so. . . For let me tell you, gentlemen, that to be afraid of death is only another form of thinking that one is wise when one is not; it is to think that one knows what one does not know. No one knows with regard to death whether it is not really the greatest blessing that can happen to a man; but people dread it as though they were certain that it is the greatest evil; and this ignorance, which thinks that it knows what it does not, must surely be ignorance most culpable. This, I take it, gentlemen, is the degree, and this is the nature of my advantage over the rest of mankind; and if I were to claim to be wiser than my neighbour in any respect, it would be in this: that not possessing any real knowledge of what comes after death, I am also conscious that I do not possess it. But I do know that to do wrong and to disobey my superior, whether God or man, is wicked and dishonourable; and so I shall never feel more fear or aversion for something which, for all I know, may really be a blessing, than for those evils which I know to be evils.

All I know is that I do not know anything,Intelligent individuals learn from every thing and every one; average people, from their experiences. The stupid already have all the answers.

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 a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.

To find the Father of all is hard. And when found, it is impossible to utter Him.

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. No one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all blessings for a man, yet men fear it as if they knew that it is the greatest of evils.

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

By far the greatest and most admirable form of wisdom is that needed to plan and beautify cities and human communities.

No one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all blessings for a man, yet men fear it as if they knew it was the greatest of evils.

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

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

. . is there not one true coin for which all things ought to exchange?- and that is wisdom; and only in exchange for this, and in company with this, is anything truly bought or sold, whether courage, temperance or justice. And is not all true virtue the companion of wisdom, no matter what fears or pleasures or other similar goods or evils may or may not attend her? But the virtue which is made up of these goods, when they are severed from wisdom and exchanged with one another, is a shadow of virtue only, nor is there any freedom or health or truth in her; but in the true exchange there is a purging away of all these things, and temperance, and justice, and courage, and wisdom herself, are a purgation of them.

One who is injured ought not to return the injury, for on no account can it be right to do an injustice; and it is not right to return an injury, or to do evil to any man, however much we have suffered from him.

An honest man is always a child.

If the soul is immortal, it demands our care not only for that part of time which we call life, but for all time: and indeed it would seem now that it will be extremely dangerous to neglect it. If death were a release from everything, it would be a boon for the wicked. But since the soul is clearly immortal, it can have no escape or security from evil except by becoming as good and wise as it possibly can. For it takes nothing with it to the next world except its education and training: and these, we are told, are of supreme importance in helping or harming the newly dead at the very beginning of his journey there.

To find yourself, think for yourself.

You are wrong sir, if you think that a man who is any good at all should take into account the risk of life or death; he should look to this only in his actions, whether what he does is right or wrong.

Wisdom is knowing you know nothing,If all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be content to take their own and depart.

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

The poets are only the interpreters of the gods.

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

Fame is the perfume of heroic deeds.

How many things there are which I do not want.

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.

Be slow to fall into friendship but when thou art in continue firm and constant.

Be slow to fall into friendship but when thou art in continue firm and constant.

To do is to be.

What most counts is not to live but to live aright.

No man undertakes a trade he has not learned even the meanest yet every one thinks himself sufficiently qualified for the hardest of all trades - that of government.

Living well and beautifully and justly are all one thing.

I am not an Athenian nor a Greek but a citizen of the world.

He is not only idle who does nothing but he is idle who might be better employed.

Four things belong to a judge: to hear courteously to answer wisely to consider soberly and to decide impartially.

Know thyself.

As for me all I know is that I know nothing.

Nobody is qualified to become a statesman who is entirely ignorant of the problems of wheat.

Our prayers should be for blessings in general for God knows best what is good for us.

Our prayers should be for blessings in general for God knows best what is good for us.

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

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 fewer our wants the nearer we resemble the gods.

You think that upon the score of fore-knowledge and divining I am infinitely inferior to the swans. When they perceive approaching death they sing more merrily than before because of the joy they have in going to the God they serve.

Children today are tyrants. They contradict their parents gobble their food and tyrannize their teachers.

As for me all I know is that I know nothing.

If a man would move the world he must first move himself.

Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.

Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.

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.

Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued.

I only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity for doing harm then they might have an unlimited power for doing good.

He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy.

The end of life is to be like God, and the soul following God will be like Him.

Where there is reverence there is fear, but there is not reverence everywhere that there is fear, because fear presumably has a wider extension than reverence.

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

As to marriage or celibacy, let a man take which course he will, he will be sure to repent.

Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.

Beauty is the bait which with delight allures man to enlarge his kind.

Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.

Be as you wish to seem.

True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.

Wisdom begins in wonder.

I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean.

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.