Socrates Quotes

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is a habit.

We are in fact convinced that if we are ever to have pure knowledge of anything, we must get rid of the body and contemplate things by themselves with the soul by itself. It seems, to judge from the argument, that the wisdom which we desire and upon which we profess to have set our hearts will be attainable only when we are dead and not in our lifetime.

There is but one evil, ignorance.

Just as you ought not to attempt to cure eyes without head or head without body, so you should not treat body without soul.

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.

He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.

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.

If I can assign names as well as pictures to objects, the right assignment of them we may call truth, and the wrong assignment of them falsehood.

The alphabet will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls. They will trust the written characters and not remember themselves.

Though flattery blossoms like friendship, yet there is a vast difference in the fruit.

I am quite ready to acknowledge . . . that I ought to be grieved at death, if I were not persuaded that I am going to other gods who are wise and good (of this I am as certain as I can be of any such matters), and to men departed who are better than those whom I leave behind. And therefore I do not grieve as I might have done, for I have good hope that there is yet something remaining for the dead.

When desire, having rejected reason and overpowered judgment which leads to right, is set in the direction of the pleasure which beauty can inspire . . .

I have good hope that there is something remaining for the dead.

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.

It is a base thing for a man to wax old in careless self-neglect before he has lifted up his eyes and seen what manner of man he was made to be, in the full perfection of bodily strength and beauty. But these glories are withheld from him who is guilty of self-neglect, for they are not wont to blaze forth unbidden.

Man must rise above the Earth - to the top of the atmosphere and beyond - for only thus will he fully understand the world in which he lives.

Wonder is the beginning of all wisdom.

Serenity, regularity, absence of vanity,Sincerity, simplicity, veracity, equanimity, Fixity, non-irritability, adaptability, Humility, tenacity, integrity, nobility, magnanimity, charity, generosity, purity. Practise daily these eighteen "ities" You will soon attain immortality.

Contentment is natural wealth.

Most people, including ourselves, live in a world of relative ignorance. We are even comfortable with that ignorance, because it is all we know. When we first start facing truth, the process may be frightening, and many people run back to their old lives. But if you continue to seek truth, you will eventually be able to handle it better. In fact, you want more! It's true that many people around you now may think you are weird or even a danger to society, but you don't care. Once you've tasted the truth, you won't ever want to go back to being ignorant

Beauty is the bait which with delight allures man to enlarge his kind.

Some have courage in pleasures, and some in pains: some in desires, and some in fears, and some are cowards under the same conditions.

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

Thou shouldst eat to live; not live to eat.

No man has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training

The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they alone knew everything and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with them. As for girls, they are forward, immodest and unwomanly in speech, behaviour and dress.

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.

Remember what is unbecoming to do is also unbecoming to speak of.

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

To harm another is to harm oneself

Be true to thine own self.

I will not yield to any man contrary to what is right, for fear of death, even if I should die at once for not yielding.

The fewer our wants the more we resemble the Gods.

I know nothing but the certainty of my own ignorance.

Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions, but those who kindly reprove thy faults.

Well I am certainly wiser than this man. It is only too likely that neither of us has any knowledge to boast of; but he thinks that he knows something which he does not know, whereas I am quite conscious of my ignorance. At any rate it seems that I am wiser than he is to this small extent, that I do not think that I know what I do not know.

Before the birth of Love, many fearful things took place through the empire of necessity; but when this god was born, all things rose to men.

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?

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.

The true Wisdom is in recognizing our own ignorance.

Aren't you ashamed to be concerned so much about making all the money you can and advancing your reputation and prestige, while for truth and wisdom and the improvement of your souls you have no thought or car?

True perfection is a bold quest to seek. Only the willing and true of heart will seek the betterment of many.

There is no learning without remembering.

Often when looking at a mass of things for sale, he would say to himself, 'How many things I have no need of!'

And I say let a man be of good cheer about his soul. When the soul has been arrayed in her own proper jewels - temperance and justice, and courage, and nobility and truth - she is ready to go on her journey when the hour comes.

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

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

And the same things look bent and straight when seen in water and out of it, and also both concave and convex, due to the sight's being mislead by the colors, and every sort of confusion of this kind is plainly in our soul. And, then, it is because they take advantage of this affection in our nature that shadow painting, and puppeteering, and many other tricks of the kind fall nothing short of wizardry.