Socrates Quotes on Wisdom
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Oh dear Pan and all the other Gods of this place, grant that I may be beautiful inside. Let all my external possessions be in friendly harmony with what is within. May I consider the wise man rich. As for gold, let me have as much as a moderate man could bear and carry with him.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.
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As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.
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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.
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I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.
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Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.
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Philosophy begins with wonder.
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See one promontory, one mountain, one sea, one river and see all.
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The fear of death is indeed the pretense of wisdom, and not real wisdom, being a pretense of knowing the unknown . . . and no one knows whether death which men in their fear apprehend to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good. . . .
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The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
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True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.
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True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.
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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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Wisdom begins in wonder.
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Know thyself.
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'I would trade all of my technology for an afternoon with Socrates.'