Quotes from Socrates

All I know is that I do not know anything

Children nowadays are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannise their teachers.

Be of good cheer about death, and know this of a truth, that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.

Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions; but those who kindly reprove thy faults.

My advice to you is get married: if you find a good wife you'll be happy; if not, you'll become a philosopher.

Esteemed friend, citizen of Athens, the greatest city in the world, so outstanding in both intelligence and power, aren't you ashamed to care so much to make all the money you can, and to advance your reputation and prestige--while for truth and wisdom and the improvement of your soul you have no care or worry?

All men's souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine.

The highest realms of thought are impossible to reach without first attaining an understanding of compassion.

To move the world we must move ourselves.

To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom.

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.

I know you won't believe me, but the highest form of Human Excellence is to question oneself and others.

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

There is no solution; seek it lovingly

The misuse of language induces evil in the soul

Through your rags I see your vanity.

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

The only thing I know is that I know nothing, and i am no quite sure that i know that.

It is better to change an opinion than to persist in a wrong one.

Intelligent individuals learn from every thing and every one; average people, from their experiences. The stupid already have all the answers.

When you want wisdom and insight as badly as you want to breathe, it is then you shall have it.

God takes away the minds of poets, and uses them as his ministers, as he also uses diviners and holy prophets, in order that we who hear them may know them to be speaking not of themselves who utter these priceless words in a state of unconsciousness, but that God himself is the speaker, and that through them he is conversing with us.

And therefore if the head and the body are to be well, you must begin by curing the soul; that is the first and essential thing. And the care of the soul, my dear youth, has to be effected by the use of certain charms, and these charms are fair words; and by them temperance is implanted in the soul, and where temperance comes and stays, there health is speedily imparted, not only to the head, but to the whole body.

Living well and beautifully and justly are all one thing.