Socrates famous quotes

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.
-- Socrates

#God #Goes On

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

#Spiritual #Intelligent

Be as you wish to seem.
-- Socrates

#Integrity #Hypocrisy #Identity

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
-- Socrates

#Wisdom #Knowing #True Wisdom

He who has lived as a true philosopher has reason to be of good cheer when he is about to die, and that after death he may hope to receive the greatest good in the other world.
-- Socrates

#Cheer #Other Worlds #May

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

#Mistake #People #Care

Wisdom begins in wonder.
-- Socrates

#Spirituality #Wonder

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

#Life #Character #Honor

To find yourself, think for yourself.
-- Socrates

#Independent #Thinking #Finding Yourself

Understanding a question is half an answer.
-- Socrates

#Understanding #Half #Answers

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

#Motivational #Track #Littles

The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.
-- Socrates

#Happiness #Freedom #Inspire

True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.
-- Socrates

#World #Littles #Spirituality

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

#Want #Breathe #Insight

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.
-- Socrates

#Change #Fighting #Focus

Wealth does not bring about excellence (aka areté), but excellence (aka areté) brings about wealth and all other public and private blessings for men.
-- Socrates

#Men #Blessing #Aka

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

#Helping Others #Done #Helping

Knowing thyself is the height of wisdom.
-- Socrates

#Knowing #Height #Thyself

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

#Men #Matter #Return

I am a citizen, not of Athens, or Greece, but of the world.
-- Socrates

#World #Athens #Politics

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

#Friendship #Faithful #Possession

To move the world we must move ourselves.
-- Socrates

#Moving #World

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

#Ridiculous #Uncomfortable

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.
-- Socrates

#Men #Blessing #Evil

The cure of many diseases remains unknown to the physicians of Hellos (Greece) because they do not study the whole person.
-- Socrates

#Dark #Age #Disease

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

#Angry

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

#Want #What You Want

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.
-- Socrates

#Workout #Men #Training

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
-- Socrates

#Health #Men #Long

The unexamined life is not worth living.
-- Socrates

#Inspirational Life #Life Is #Unexamined Life

Nothing is so well learned as that which is discovered.
-- Socrates

#Wells

True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.
-- Socrates

#Knowing #True Knowledge #Self Awareness

The individual leads in order that those who are led can develop their potential as human beings and thereby prosper.
-- Socrates

#Order #Individual #Humans

As to marriage or celibacy, let a man take which course he will, he will be sure to repent
-- Socrates

#Men #Wedding Anniversary #Celibacy

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

#Understanding #Sound #Ethics

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

#Compassion #Understanding #Firsts

I pray Thee, O God, that I may be beautiful within.
-- Socrates

#Love #Beautiful #May

Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior.
-- Socrates

#Sisterhood #Men #Made

Thou shouldst eat to live; not live to eat.
-- Socrates

An honest man is always a child.
-- Socrates

#Children #Men #Honest

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

#Thinking #Compassion #Faithful

The right way to begin is to pay attention to the young, and make them just as good as possible.
-- Socrates

#Pay #Way #Attention

Nobody is qualified to become a statesman who is entirely ignorant of the problem of wheat.
-- Socrates

#Ignorant #Wheat #Problem

I was really too honest a man to be a politician and live.
-- Socrates

#Men #Honest #Politician

Every action has its pleasures and its price.
-- Socrates

#Action #Pleasure

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?
-- Socrates

#Children #One Day #Care

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

#Fear #Reverence

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.
-- Socrates

#Inspirational #Jewels #Names

The only thing I know is that I know nothing
-- Socrates

#Philosophical

It is not living that matters, but living rightly.
-- Socrates

#Matter

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

#Realizing #Consciousness

They are not only idle who do nothing, but they are idle also who might be better employed.
-- Socrates

#Philosophical #Might #Idle

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?
-- Socrates

#Death #Wise #Fear

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

#Philosophical #Rivers #Sea

Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.
-- Socrates

#Philosophical #Tyranny

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

#Philosophy #People #Dying

Wars and revolutions and battles are due simply and solely to the body and its desires.
-- Socrates

#War #Philosophical #Desire

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

#Hurt #Philosophical #Hurt Me

To know, is to know that you know nothing.
-- Socrates

Be true to thine own self.
-- Socrates

#Life #Self #Being True

Are you not ashamed of heaping up the greatest amount of money and honor and reputation, and caring so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul?
-- Socrates

#Caring #Soul #Honor

Be of good cheer about death and know this as a truth, that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death
-- Socrates

#Life #Truth #Cheer

Living well and beautifully and justly are all one thing.
-- Socrates

#Live Well #Wells

The misuse of language induces evil in the soul.
-- Socrates

#Evil #Soul #Crafts

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

#Beauty #Men #Delight

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

#Exercise #Body #Care

Is there anyone to whom you entrust a greater number of serious matters than your wife? And is there anyone with whom you have fewer conversations?
-- Socrates

#Numbers #Wife #Matter

He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy.
-- Socrates

#Strength #Running #Peace

The first key to greatness is to be in reality what we appear to be.
-- Socrates

#Greatness #Reality #Keys

Nothing is to be preferred before justice.
-- Socrates

#Justice

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

#Reading #Wealth

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.
-- Socrates

#Airplane #Men #Atmosphere

She soars on her own wings.
-- Socrates

#Inspirational #Wings #Scrapbooking

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

#Life #Remember #Speak

The easiest and noblest way is not to be crushing others, but to be improving yourselves.
-- Socrates

#Life #Crush #Way

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.
-- Socrates

#Fall #Sight #Color

How many things are there which I do not want.
-- Socrates

#Simple #Want

Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.
-- Socrates

#Travel #Wonder

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.
-- Socrates

#Simple #Simple Life #Busy

Children today are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers.
-- Socrates

#Funny #Teacher #Children

A disorderly mob is no more an army than a heap of building materials is a house
-- Socrates

#Army #House #Building

If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.
-- Socrates

#Adversity #People #Would Be

What a lot of things there are a man can do without.
-- Socrates

#Men #Wealth

He is the richest who is content with the least.
-- Socrates

#Wealth

The comic and the tragic lie inseparably close, like light and shadow.
-- Socrates

#Laughter #Lying #Light

Fame is the perfume of heroic deeds.
-- Socrates

#Deeds #Heroic #Fame

When our feet hurt, we hurt all over.
-- Socrates

#Hurt #Feet

All of the wisdom of this world is but a tiny raft upon which we must set sail when we leave this earth. If only there was a firmer foundation upon which to sail, perhaps some divine word.
-- Socrates

#World #Earth #Tiny

If you want to be a good saddler, saddle the worst horse; for if you can tame one, you can tame all.
-- Socrates

#Horse #Want #Saddles

Wisdom is knowing how little we know.
-- Socrates

#Wisdom #Knowing #Littles

Contentment is natural wealth.
-- Socrates

#Contentment #Wealth #Natural

All I know is that I do not know anything
-- Socrates

One who is injured ought not to return the injury, for on no account can it be right to do an injustice.
-- Socrates

#Inspiration #Return #Injustice

It is not difficult to avoid death. It is much more difficult to avoid wickedness, for it runs faster than death.
-- Socrates

#Running #Wickedness #Faster

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
-- Socrates

#Running #Truth #Ignorance

I only know that I know nothing
-- Socrates

In every person there is a sun. Just let them shine.
-- Socrates

#Shining #Sun #Persons

The reason why we have to acquire wealth is the body, because we are slaves in its service.
-- Socrates

#Body #Wealth #Slave

When I was young, I believed that life might unfold in an orderly way, according to my hopes and expectations. But now I understand that the Way winds like a river, always changing, ever onward.. My journeys revealed that the Way itself creates the warrior; that every path leads to peace, every choice to wisdom. And that life has always been, and will always be, arising in Mystery.
-- Socrates

#Warrior #Journey #Wind

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

#Beer #Men #Good Man