Socrates quotes

Born
470/469, BC, Deme Alopece, Athens.

Died
399, BC, Athens.

Occupation
Philosopher.

Socrates was was a classical Greek philosopher credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy. He is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of classical writers.

Be as you wish to seem.
– Socrates

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

Let him that would move the world first move himself.
– Socrates

The unexamined life is not worth living.
– Socrates

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

Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.
– Socrates

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

To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.
– Socrates

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

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

Wisdom begins in wonder.
– Socrates

If a man is proud of his wealth, he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it.
– Socrates

Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.
– Socrates

Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued.
– Socrates

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

Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.
– Socrates

From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.
– Socrates

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

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

I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.
– Socrates

All men’s souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine.
– Socrates

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

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.
– Socrates

False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.
– Socrates

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

A system of morality which is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception which has nothing sound in it and nothing true.
– Socrates

Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.
– Socrates

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

The poets are only the interpreters of the gods.
– Socrates

He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.
– Socrates

An honest man is always a child.
– Socrates

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

The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.
– Socrates

I only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity for doing harm; then they might have an unlimited power for doing good.
– Socrates

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

Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.
– Socrates

Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.
– Socrates

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.
– Socrates

I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.
– Socrates

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