Socrates Quotes
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The poets are only the interpreters of the Gods.
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I am that gadfly which God has attached to the state, and all day long and in all places am always fastening upon you, arousing and persuading and reproaching you.
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As to marriage or celibacy, let a man take which course he will, he will be sure to repent.
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It is better to make a mistake with full force of your being than to carefully avoid mistakes with a trembling spirit.
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Virtue is the beauty of the soul.
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Happiness is unrepented pleasure.
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Wisdom belongs in wonder.
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You too must be of good hope as regards death, gentlemen of the jury, and keep this one truth in mind, that a good man cannot be harmed either in life or in death, and that his affairs are not neglected by the gods. What has happened to me now has not happened of itself, but it is clear to me that it was better for me to die now and to escape from trouble. That is why my divine sign did not oppose me at any point. So I am certainly not angry with those who convicted me, or with my accusers. Of course that was not their purpose when they accused and convicted me, but they thought they were hurting me, and for this they deserve blame.
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The warm love has the coldest end.
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If thou continuous to take delight in idle argumentation thou mayest be qualified to combat with the sophists, but will never know how to live with men.
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No one can teach, if by teaching we mean the transmission of knowledge, in any mechanical fashion, from one person to another. The most that can be done is that one person who is more knowledgeable than another can, by asking a series of questions, stimulate the other to think, and so cause him to learn for himself.
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Nobody knows what death is, nor whether to man it is perchance the greatest of blessings, yet people fear it as if they surely knew it to be the worse of evils.
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True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing. And in knowing that you know nothing, that makes you the smartest of all.
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Knowledge is our ultimate good.
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Wisdom is knowing what you don't know.
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An unexamined life is a life of no account.
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Nobody is qualified to become a statesman who is entirely ignorant of the problem of wheat.
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If one knows what is right, he will do it; nobody wants to be evil.
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The end of life is to be like unto God; and the soul following God, will be like unto Him; He being the beginning, middle, and end of all things.
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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.
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I do nothing but go about persuading you all, old and young alike, not to take thought for your persons or your properties, but and chiefly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul.
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The easiest and noblest way is not to be crushing others, but to be improving yourselves.
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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?
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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.