Overview
Socrates was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as a founder of Western philosophy and the first moral philosopher of the ethical tradition of thought.
An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no texts and is known mainly through the posthumous accounts of classical writers, particularly his students Plato and Xenophon.
Socrates Quotes
“All men's souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine.” –Socrates
“As to marriage or celibacy, let a man take which course he will, he will be sure to repent.” –Socrates
“Be slow to fall into friendship but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.” –Socrates
“Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.” –Socrates
“Beauty is the bait which with delight allures man to enlarge his kind.” –Socrates
“Beware the barrenness of a busy life.” –Socrates
“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.” –Socrates
“Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.” –Socrates
“Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.” –Socrates
“He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy.” –Socrates
“He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.” –Socrates
“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.” –Socrates
“I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.” –Socrates
“I only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity for doing harm then they might have an unlimited power for doing good.” –Socrates
“My advice to you is get married: if you find a good wife you'll be happy if not, you'll become a philosopher.” –Socrates
“Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued.” –Socrates
“Of all our possessions, wisdom alone is imortal.” –Socrates
“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.” –Socrates
“Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.” –Socrates
“The end of life is to be like God, and the soul following God will be like Him.” –Socrates
“The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.” –Socrates
“The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.” –Socrates
“The nearest way to glory is to strive to be what you wish to be thought to be.” –Socrates
“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” –Socrates
“The unexamined life is not worth living.” –Socrates
“The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.” –Socrates
“To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.” –Socrates
“True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.” –Socrates
“True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.” –Socrates
“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.” –Socrates
“Wisdom begins in wonder.” –Socrates