Socrates Quotes
Most popular Socrates Quotes
To do is to be.
Beauty is a short reign.
Wisdom begins in wonder.
Speech is a kind of action.
Contentment is natural wealth.
As for me, all I know is nothing.
Happiness is unrepented pleasure.
Fame is the perfume of heroic deeds.
The unexamined life isn't worth living.
My belief is that to have no wants is divine.
Know thyself, and thou shalt know the universe.
What counts is not to live, but to live aright.
Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued.
The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.
I pray thee, O God, that I may be beautiful within.
Better to do a little well, then a great deal badly.
Wealth is a lot of things that a man can do without.
Those who want fewest things are nearest to the gods.
Living or dead, to a good man there can come no evil.
Let him that would move the world, first move himself.
True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.
Let they that would move the world first move themselves.
I am a citizen, not of Athens or Greece, but of the world.
The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.
A promise should be given with caution and kept with care.
I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.
Contentment is natural wealth; luxury is artificial poverty.
There is only one good, knowledge, and only one evil, ignorance.
I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.
You are not only good yourself, but the cause of goodness in others.
I shall never act differently, even I'll have to die for it many times.
Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.
What is in conformity with justice should also be in conformity to the laws.
The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.
Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.
A man is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.
Get not your friends by bare compliments, but by giving them sensible tokens of your love.
Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.
All human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice and experience of them.
The tongue of a fool is the key of his counsel, which, in a wise man, wisdom hath in keeping.
Life contains but two tragedies. One is not to get your heart's desire; the other is to get it.
The right way to begin is to pay attention to the young, and make them just as good as possible.
If a rich man is proud of his wealth, he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it.
Think not those faithful who praise all your words and actions, but those who kindly reprove your faults.
The first step to knowledge is to know that we are ignorant. As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.
Children today are tyrants. They contradict their parent, gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers.
The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world, is to be in reality what we would appear to be.
We cannot live better than in seeking to become better, nor more agreeably than in having a clear conscience.
My advice to you is get married: if you find a good wife you'll be happy; if not, you'll become a philosopher.
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.
When the mind is thinking, is it simply talking to itself, asking questions and answering them, and saying yes or no.
Four things belong to a judge: to hear courteously, to answer wisely, to consider soberly, and to decide impartially.
Nature has given us two ears, two eyes, and but one tongue, to the end that we should hear and see more than we speak.
Virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of a man, public as well as private.
By all means marry. If you get a good wife you will become happy — and if you get a bad one you will become a philosopher.
I only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity for doing harm; then they might have an unlimited power for doing good.
Employ your time in improving yourself by other people's writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for.
Such as thy words are, such will thy affections be esteemed; and such will thy deeds as thy affections, and such thy life as thy deeds.
A man should inure himself to voluntary labor, and not give up to indulgence and pleasure, as he beget no good constitution of body nor knowledge of mind.
If all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap, whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be content to take their own and depart.
Men who provide much wealth for their children but neglect to improve them in virtue, do like those who feed their horses high, but never train them to be useful.
When desire, having rejected reason and overpowered judgment which leads to right, is set in the direction of the pleasure which beauty can inspire, ... it is called love.
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.
The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.
