Socrates Quotes & Sayings

#1. 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.

Socrates

#2. You think that upon the score of fore-knowledge and divining I am infinitely inferior to the swans. When they perceive approaching death they sing more merrily than before, because of the joy they have in going to the God they serve.

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#3. It is not living that matters, but living rightly.

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#4. Mankind is made of two kinds of people: wise people who know they're fools, and fools who think they are wise.

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#5. My plainness of speech makes them hate me, and what is their hatred but a
proof that I am speaking the truth.

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#6. The greater the power that deigns to serve you, the more honor it demands of you.

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

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#8. 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.

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#9. I only know one thing, and that is I know nothing

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#10. 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.

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#11. I only know, I know nothing

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#12. Why should we pay so much attention to what the majority thinks?

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#13. 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.

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#14. Be nicer than necessary to everyone you meet. Everyone is fighting some kind of battle.

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

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#16. False language, evil in itself, infects the soul with evil.

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

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#18. I know one thing, that I know nothing.

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#19. Smart people learn from everything and everyone,
Average people from their experiences,
Stupid people already have all the answers.

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#20. By far the greatest and most admirable form of wisdom is that needed to plan and beautify cities and human communities.

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#21. No man undertakes a trade he has not learned, even the meanest; yet everyone thinks himself sufficiently qualified for the hardest of all trades, that of government.

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#22. ...[W]hen death comes to a man, the mortal part of him dies, but the immortal part retires at the approach of death and escapes unharmed and indestructible... [I]t is as certain as anything can be... that soul is immortal and imperishable, and that our souls will really exist in the next world.

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#23. Is something good because the gods approve of it? Or do the gods approve of it because it is good?

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#24. Not by wisdom do they [poets] make what they compose, but by a gift of nature and an inspiration similar to that of the diviners and the oracles.

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#25. It is better to suffer an injustice than to commit one

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

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#27. Since I am convinced that I wrong no one, I am not likely to wrong myself.

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

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#29. Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.

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

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#31. Nobody is qualified to become a statesman who is entirely ignorant of the problem of wheat.

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#32. Flattery is like a painted armor; only for show.

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#33. There is no learning without remembering.

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#34. Regard your good name as the richest jewel yoou can possibly be possessed of.

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#35. Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.

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#36. An honest man is always a child.

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#37. Living or dead, to a good man there can come no evil.

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#38. A disorderly mob is no more an army than a heap of building materials is a house

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

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#40. Only the knowledge that comes from inside is the real Knowledge

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

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#42. And in knowing that you know nothing makes you the smartest of all.

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#43. What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?

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#44. Are you not ashamed of heaping up the greatest
amount of money and honour and reputation,
and caring so little about wisdom and
truth and the greatest improvement of the soul?

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#45. Virtue does not come from wealth, but ... wealth, and every other good thing which men have ... comes from virtue.

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#46. The more I know, the more I know that I don't know.

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#47. Be slow to fall into friendship, but when you are in, continue firm and constant.

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

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#49. 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.

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#50. Could I climb the highest place in Athens, I would lift up my voice and proclaim, Fellow citizens, why do you burn and scrape every stone to gather wealth, and talk so little care of your children to whom you must one day relinquish all?

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#51. 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.

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#52. Wisdom adorneth riches and casteth a shadow over poverty.

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#53. Creation is man's immortality and brings him nearest to the gods.

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#54. Go wherever the facts lead.

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#55. I swear it upon Zeus an outstanding runner cannot be the equal of an average wrestler.

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

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#57. 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.

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#58. Wisdom is knowing when you don't know

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#59. Nothing is so well learned as that which is discovered.

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

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#61. We cannot live better than in seeking to become better.

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#62. There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.

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#63. 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.

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#64. Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.

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#65. Are you not ashamed of caring so much for the making of money and for fame and prestige, when you neither think nor care about wisdom and truth and the improvement of your soul?

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#66. He who would change the world should first change himself.

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#67. If at first you don't succeed, avoid skydiving.

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#68. The true champion of justice, if he intends to survive even for a short time, must necessarily confine himself to private life and leave politics alone.

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

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

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#71. Well, then, let's not just trust the likelihood based on painting.

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

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#73. There is no illness of the body except for the mind

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

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#75. He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.

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#76. Nothing is to be preferred before justice.

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#77. The man who is truly wise knows that he knows very little.

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

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#79. The universe really is motion & nothing else.

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#80. It is not difficult to avoid death, gentlemen of the jury; it is much more difficult to avoid wickedness, for it runs faster than death.

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#81. She soars on her own wings.

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#82. 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.

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#83. Talk in order that I may see you.

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#84. By all implies marry if you get a great wife/husband, you are going to be pleased. If you get a bad a single, you are going to become a philosopher.

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#85. Is it true; is it kind, or is it necessary?

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

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#87. To find yourself, think for yourself.

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#88. The end of life is to be like God, and the soul following God will be like Him.

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#89. And so they grow richer and richer, and the more they think of making a fortune the less they think of virtue; for when riches and virtue are placed together in the scales of the balance, the one always rises as the other falls.

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

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

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#92. Life without enquiry is not worth living.

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#93. The warm love has the coldest end.

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#94. There is a doctrine whispered in secret that a man is a prisoner who has no right to open the door and run away; this is a great mystery which I do not quite understand.

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