13 Socrates Quotes on Knowledge

Socrates quotes on knowledge

6. When I left him, I reasoned thus with myself: I am wiser than this man, for neither of us appears to know anything great and good; but he fancies he knows something, although he knows nothing; whereas I, as I do not know anything, so I do not fancy I do. In this trifling particular, then, I appear to be wiser than he, because I do not fancy I know what I do not know.

7. And how is not this the most reprehensible ignorance, to think that one knows what one does not know? But I, O Athenians! in this, perhaps, differ from most men; and if I should say that I am in any thing wiser than another, it would be in this, that not having a competent knowledge of the things in Hades, I also think that I have not such knowledge.

10. I realized that it was not by wisdom that poets write their poetry, but by a kind of nature or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets; for these also say many beautiful things, but do not know anything of what they say.

18. Really, Ischomachus, I am disposed to ask: 'Does teaching consist in putting questions?' Indeed, the secret of your system has just this instant dawned upon me. I seem to see the principle in which you put your questions. You lead me through the field of my own knowledge, and then by pointing out analogies to what I know, persuade me that I really know some things which hitherto, as I believed, I had no knowledge of.

21. I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.

24. There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.

28. As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.

41. Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.

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

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

78. The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

86. True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.

99. It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are of a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question. The other party to the comparison knows both sides.