Socrates Quotes on Philosophy

29 quotes

1. By means of beauty all beautiful things become beautiful. For this appears to me the safest answer to give both to myself and others; and adhering to this, I think that I shall never fall, but that it is a safe answer both for me and any one else to give - that by means of beauty beautiful things become beautiful.

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.

8. The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being. (ho de anexetastos bios ou biotos anthropoi)

9. 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.

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.

11. If my life is to be prolonged now, I know that I must live out my old age, seeing worse, hearing less, learning with more difficulty, and forgetting more and more of what I have learned. If I see myself growing worse and reproach myself for it, tell me, how could I continue to live pleasantly? Perhaps even the god in his kindness is offering to end my life not only at the right time, but also in the easiest way possible...

13. Not I, but the city, teaches.

14. 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.

16. You will know that the divine is so great and of such a nature that it sees and hears everything at once, is present everywhere, and is concerned with everything.

17. If I am to live longer, perhaps I must live out my old age, seeing and hearing less, understanding worse, coming to learn with more difficulty and to be more forgetful, and growing worse than those to whom I was once superior. Indeed, life would be unliveable, even if I did not notice the change. And if I see the change, how could life not be even more wretched and unpleasant?

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

35. 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.

37. Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.

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

39. Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.

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

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

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

53. I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.

54. 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.

55. I hold that to need nothing is divine, and the less a man needs the nearer he does approach divinity.

57. I was afraid that by observing objects with my eyes and trying to comprehend them with each of my other senses I might blind my soul altogether.

68. Philosophy begins with wonder.

72. See one promontory, one mountain, one sea, one river and see all.

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

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

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

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

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.

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