Socrates Quotes

The friend must be like money, that before you need it, the value is known.

Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.

All thinking begins with wondering

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.

The real danger in life is not death, but living an evil life.

Improve yourself by other men's writings thus attaining effortlessly what they acquired through great difficulty.

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

Remember, no human condition is ever permanent. Then you will not be overjoyed in good fortune nor too scornful in misfortune.

To harm another is to harm oneself

Let us follow the truth whither so ever it leads.

Do not go through life like leaf blown from here to there believing whatever you are told.

Knowing thyself is the height of wisdom.

The rest of the world lives to eat, while I eat to live.

It is better to suffer an injustice than to commit one

How can you call a man free when his pleasures rule over him.

We can do nothing without the body, let us always take care that it is in the best condition to sustain us.

The really important thing is not to live, but to live well. And to live well meant, along with more enjoyable things in life, to live according to your principles.

An honest man is always a child.

It is possible that a man could live twice as long if he didn't spend the first half of his life acquiring habits that shortens the other half

My friend...care for your psyche...know thyself, for once we know ourselves, we may learn how to care for ourselves

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.

Our lives are but specks of dust falling through the fingers of time. Like sands of the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.

All wars are fought for the acquisition of wealth

To need nothing is divine, and the less a man needs the nearer does he approach to divinity.

You never know a line is crooked unless you have a straight one to put next to it.

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

Prefer knowledge to wealth, for the one is transitory, the other perpetual.

There's no good answer to a question you didn't hear

The body cannot be cured without regard for the soul.

Marry or marry not, in any either case you'll regret it

There is no learning without remembering.

Be the kind of person that you want people to think you are.

There is no possession more valuable than a good and faithful friend.

Understanding a question is half an answer.

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

The more I learn, the less I realize I know.

An education obtained with money is worse than no education at all.

The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary. There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.

Nothing is so well learned as that which is discovered.

Do not grieve over someone who changes all of the sudden. It might be that he has given up acting and returned to his true self.

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.

When a woman is allowed to become a man's equal, she becomes his superior.

I am a Citizen of the World, and my Nationality is Goodwill.

Trust not a woman when she weeps, for it is her nature to weep when she wants her will.

Sometimes you have to let go to see if there was anything worth holding onto.

If what you want to tell me is neither True nor Good nor even Useful, why tell it to me at all

To Believe without evidence and demonstration is an act of ignorance and folly

It is better to make a mistake with full force of your being than to carefully avoid mistakes with a trembling spirit.

There are two kinds of disease of the soul, vice and ignorance.

I am a fool, but I know I'm a fool and that makes me smarter than you.

He is the richest who is content with the least.

When you want success as badly as you want the air, then you will get it. There is no other secret of success.

The years wrinkle our skin, but lack of enthusiasm wrinkles our soul.

Wisdom begins in wonder.

I call myself a Peaceful Warrior... because the battles we fight are on the inside.

Silence is a profound melody, for those who can hear it above all the noise.

The unexamined life is not worth living.

Better to do a little well, then a great deal badly.

To move the world we must move ourselves.

All that I know is nothing - I'm not even sure of that.

Lies are the greatest murder. They kill the Truth.

Falling down is not a failure. Failure comes when you stay where you have fallen.

When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.

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?

The perfect human being is all human beings put together, it is a collective, it is all of us together that make perfection.

Young people nowadays love luxury; they have bad manners and contempt for authority. They show disrespect for old people... contradict their parents, talk constantly in front of company, gobble their food and tyrannize their teachers.

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

I don't care what people say about me. I do care about my mistakes.

What most counts is not merely to live, but to live right.

Do not do to others what angers you if done to you by others.

Wisest is he who knows he knows not.

The heart of the person before you is a mirror. See there your own form.

Follow the argument wherever it leads.

Every action has its pleasures and its price.

Go wherever the facts lead.

Only the extremely ignorant or the extremely intelligent can resist change.

It is not living that matters, but living rightly.

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

From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.

The soul, like the body, accepts by practice whatever habit one wishes it to contact.

The beginning of wisdom is a definition of terms.

Be as you wish to seem.

Slanderers do not hurt me because they do not hit me.

I love to go and see all the things I am happy without.

Those who want the fewest things are nearest to the gods.

Exercise till the mind feels delight in reposing from the fatigue.

There is but one evil, ignorance.

An unexamined life is a life of no account.

Let the questions be the curriculum.

No citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training... what a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.

Contentment is natural wealth.

The highest realms of thought are impossible to reach without first attaining an understanding of compassion.

In childhood be modest, in youth temperate, in adulthood just, and in old age prudent.

The best seasoning for food is hunger; for drink, thirst.

People learn more on their own rather than being force fed. Socrates

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

Wisdom is knowing what you don't know.

It is better to be at odds with the whole world than, being one, to be at odds with myself.

Do not be angry with me if I tell you the truth

If he who does not know kept silent, discord would cease.