Socrates
By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.
Socrates
Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.
Socrates
Do not do to others what angers you if done to you by others.
Socrates
Envy is the ulcer of the soul.
Socrates
Get not your friends by bare compliments, but by giving them sensible tokens of your love.
Socrates
If a man is proud of his wealth, he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it.
Socrates
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
Remember
that there is nothing stable in human affairs; therefore avoid undue
elation in prosperity, or undue depression in adversity.
Socrates
Remember what is unbecoming to do is also unbecoming to speak of.
Socrates
The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.
Socrates
- More quotations on: [Knowledge] [Ignorance]
The
shortest and surest way to live with honour in the world, is to be in
reality what we would appear to be; and if we observe, we shall find,
that all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the
practice of them.
Socrates
Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions; but those who kindly reprove thy faults.
Socrates
Thou shouldst eat to live; not live to eat.
Socrates
Having the fewest wants, I am nearest to the gods.
Socrates, from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers
I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.
Socrates, from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers
There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.
Socrates, from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers
Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.
Socrates, from Plutarch, How a Young Man Ought to Hear Poems
I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.
Socrates, from Plutarch, Of Banishment
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.
Socrates, In "Apology," sct. 21, by Plato.
The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways - I to die, and you to live. Which is better God only knows.
Socrates, in Plato, Dialogues, Apology
The unexamined life is not worth living.
Socrates, in Plato, Dialogues, Apology
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. I tell you that virtue
is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every other
good of man, public as well as private. This is my teaching, and if
this is the doctrine which corrupts the youth, I am a mischievous
person.
Socrates, quoted by Plato, 'The Death of Socrates'
The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways--I to die and you to live. Which is the better, only God knows.
Socrates, Quoted in: Plato's Apology, sct. 42a. Last words of his
speech to the court following the sentence of death imposed on him by
the Athenians.