Socrates Quotes
-
I must first know myself, as the Delphian inscription says; to be curious about that which is not my concern, while I am still in ignorance of my own self, would be ridiculous. And therefore I bid farewell to all this; the common opinion is enough for me. For, as I was saying, I want to know not about this, but about myself: am I a monster more complicated and swollen with passion than the serpent Typho, or a creature of a gentler and simpler sort, to whom Nature has given a diviner and lowlier destiny?
-
I call myself a Peaceful Warrior... because the battles we fight are on the inside.
-
What a lot of things there are a man can do without.
-
This is...self-knowled ge-for a man to know what he knows, and what he does not know.
-
There are a great many of these accusers, and they have been accusing me now for a great many years, and what is more, they approached you at the most impressionable age, when some of you were children or adolescents; and literally won their case by default, because there was no one to defend me.
-
Marry or marry not, in any either case you'll regret it.
-
The greatest flood has the soonest ebb; the sorest tempest the most sudden calm; the hottest love the coldest end; and from the deepest desire oftentimes ensues the deadliest hate.
-
...in the acquisition of this blessing human nature can find no better helper than Love. I declare that it is the duty of every man to honour Love, and I honour and practice the mysteries of Love in an especial degree myself, and recommend the same to others, and I praise the power and valour of Love to the best of my ability both now and always.
-
Do not be angry with me if I tell you the truth.
-
Whenever any one informs us that he has found a man who knows all the arts, and all things else that anybody knows, and every single thing with a higher degree of accuracy than any other man - whoever tells us this, I think that we can only imagine him to be a simple creature who is likely to have been deceived by some wizard or actor whom he met, and whom he thought all-knowing, because he himself was unable to analyse the nature of knowledge and ignorance and imitation.
-
When you propose ridiculous things to believe, too many men will choose to believe nothing at all.
-
It has been shown that to injure anyone is never just anywhere.
-
Be of good hope in the face of death. Believe in this one truth for certain, that no evil can befall a good man either in life or death, and that his fate is not a matter of indifference to the gods.
-
All that I know is nothing - I'm not even sure of that.
-
How many things I can do without!
-
Our purpose in founding the city was not to make any one class in it surpassingly happy, but to make the city as a whole as happyas possible.
-
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.
-
But already it is time to depart, for me to die, for you to go on living; which of us takes the better course, is concealed from anyone except God.
-
A man can no more make a safe use of wealth without reason than he can of a horse without a bridle.
-
A system of morality that is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception that has nothing sound in it and nothing true.
-
In every one of us there are two ruling and directing principles, whose guidance we follow wherever they may lead; the one being an innate desire of pleasure; the other, an acquired judgment which aspires after excellence.
-
Neither I nor any other man should, on trial or in way, contrive to avoid death at any cost.
-
The cure of many diseases remains unknown to the physicians of Hellosbecause they do not study the whole person.
-
Either I do not corrupt the young or, if I do, it is unwillingly.