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Virtue does not come from wealth, but wealth, and every other good thing which men have comes from virtue.
Socrates -
Let us reflect in this way, too, that there is good hope that death is a blessing, for it is one of two things: either the dead are nothing and have no perception of anything, or it is, as we are told, a change and a relocation for the soul from here to another place.
Socrates
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Are you not ashamed of heaping up the greatest amount of money and honor and reputation, and caring so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul?
Socrates -
He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy.
Socrates -
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.
Socrates -
Do you suppose that I should have lived as long as I have if I had moved in the sphere of public life, and conducting myself in that sphere like an honorable man, had always upheld the cause of right, and conscientiously set this end above all other things? Not by a very long way, gentlemen; neither would any other man.
Socrates -
Fellow citizens, why do you burn and scrape every stone to gather wealth and take so little care of your children to whom you must one day relinquish all?
Socrates -
...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.
Socrates
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What a lot of things there are a man can do without.
Socrates -
Virtue is the nursing-mother of all human pleasures, who, in rendering them just, renders them also pure and permanent; in moderating them, keeps them in breath and appetite; in interdicting those which she herself refuses, whets our desires to those that she allows; and, like a kind and liberal mother, abundantly allows all that nature requires, even to satiety, if not to lassitude.
Socrates -
So you would rather suffer an injustice than do an injustice?
Socrates -
All that I know is nothing - I'm not even sure of that.
Socrates -
By far the greatest and most admirable form of wisdom is that needed to plan and beautify cities and human communities.
Socrates -
Neither I nor any other man should, on trial or in way, contrive to avoid death at any cost.
Socrates
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Wars, factions, and fighting, have no other origin than this same body and its lusts... We must set the soul free from it; we must behold things as they are. And having thus got rid of the foolishness of the body, we shall be pure and hold converse with the pure, and shall in our own selves have complete knowledge of the Incorruptible which is, I take it, no other than the very truth.
Socrates -
What a lot of things I don't need.
Socrates -
Get married, in any case. If you happen to get a good mate, you will be happy; if a bad one, you will become philosophical, which is a fine thing in itself.
Socrates -
Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten, imparting grace, and making the soul of him who is rightly educated graceful, or of him who is ill-educated ungraceful.
Socrates -
Wealth does not bring about excellence, but excellence brings about wealth and all other public and private blessings for men.
Socrates -
I love to go and see all the things I am happy without.
Socrates
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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.
Socrates -
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.
Socrates -
One thing I know, that I know nothing. This is the source of my wisdom.
Socrates -
Living or dead, to a good man there can come no evil.
Socrates