Socrates Quotes

I shall never fear or avoid things of which I do not know.

To be uncertain is to be uncomfortable, but to be certain is to be ridiculous.

I desire only to know the truth, and to live as well as I can...And, to the utmost of my power, I exhort all other men to do the same...I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly conflict.

A man can no more make a safe use of wealth without reason than he can of a horse without a bridle.

Pride divides the men, humility joins them.

You don't know what you don't know.

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

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.

To live well and honorably and justly are the same thing.

I only know one thing, and that is I know nothing

I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.

Whatever authority I may have rests solely on knowing how little I know.

Wisest is he who knows he knows not.

Malice drinketh up the greater part of its own poison.

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

Get not your friends by bare compliments but by giving them sensible tokens of your love.

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.

How can you wonder your travels do you no good, when you carry yourself around with you?

Who knows if to live is to be dead, and to be dead, to live? And we really, it may be, are dead; in fact I once heard sages say that we are now dead, and the body is our tomb.

The misuse of language induces evil in the soul.

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

Listen not to a tale-bearer or slanderer, for he tells thee nothing out of good-will; but as he discovereth of the secrets of others, so he will of thine in turn.

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

It is not the purpose of a juryman's office to give justice as a favor to whoever seems good to him, but to judge according to law, and this he has sworn to do.

A man should inure himself to voluntary labor, and not give up to indulgence and pleasure, as they beget no good constitution of body nor knowledge of mind.

The understanding of mathematics is necessary for a sound grasp of ethics.

Antiphon, as another man gets pleasure from a good horse, or a dog, or a bird, I get even more pleasure from good friends. And if I have something good, I teach it to them, and I introduce them to others who will be useful to them with respect to virtue. And together with my friends I go through the treasures of wise men of old which they left behind written in books, and we peruse them. If we see something good, we pick it out and hold it to be a great profit, if we are able to prove useful to one another.

Wisdom begins in wonder.

Beauty comes first. Victory is secondary. What matters is joy.

To fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise, without being wise: for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For anything that men can tell, death may be the greatest good that can happen to them: but they fear it as if they knew quite well that it was the greatest of evils. And what is this but that shameful ignorance of thinking that we know what we do not know?

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

When desire, having rejected reason and overpowered judgment which leads to right, is set in the direction of the pleasure which beauty can inspire, and when again under the influence of its kindred desires it is moved with violent motion towards the beauty of corporeal forms, it acquires a surname from this very violent motion, and is called love.

He is the richest who is content with the least.

I call that man idle who might be better employed.

True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.

When our feet hurt, we hurt all over.

To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge. For a man who claims to have knowledge, while actually knowing nothing, is less smarter than you, who claim to know nothing.

See one promontory, one mountain, one sea, one river and see all.

The soul then, as being immortal, and having been born again many times, and having seen all things that exist, whether in this world or in the world below, has knowledge of them all . . . all enquiry and all learning is but recollection.

If you can do only a little. Do what you can. What you cannot enforce, do not command.

It is not living that matters, but living rightly.

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

Such as thy words are, such will thy affections be esteemed; and such will thy deeds be as thy affections and such thy life as thy deeds.

Lies are the greatest murder. They kill the Truth.

No one does wrong voluntarily.

The greatest blessing granted to mankind come by way of madness, which is a divine gift.

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

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.