Quotes from Socrates

By all means marry. If you get a good spouse you'll become happy, while if you get a bad one you'll become a philosopher.

W]hy should we pay so much attention to what 'most people' think? The really reasonable people, who have more claim to be considered, will believe that the facts are exactly as they are.

He who would change the world should first change himself.

The mind is the pilot of the soul.

Do we have not choice but to agree that in each of us are found the same elements and characteristics as are found in the city? After all, where else could the city have got them from?

Thus such another will not easily come to you, men, but if you believe me, you will spare me; but perhaps you might possibly be offended, like the sleeping who are awakened, striking me, believing Anytus, you might easily kill, then the rest of your lives you might continue sleeping, unless the god caring for you should send you another.

He who knows not and knows not that he knows not is an incorrigible fool.

Could I climb the highest place in Athens, I would lift up my voice and proclaim, "Fellow citizens, why do you burn and scrape every stone to gather wealth, and talk so little care of your children to whom you must one day relinquish all?

Hayat k?sa, vazife a??r, f?rsatlar geçicidir.

Kehidupan yang tak dipikirkan adalah kehidupan yang tak pantas untuk dijalani

So I withdrew and thought to myself: 'I am wiser than this man; it is likely that neither of us knows anything worthwhile, but he thinks he knows something when he does not, whereas when I do not know, neither do I think I know; so I am likely to be wiser than he to this small extent, that I do not think I know what I do not know.

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

No man is capable of causing great evil without thinking he's doing the right thing.

Human nature will not easily find a better helper than eros

I only know one thing, and that is I know nothing

F]rom me you shall hear the whole truth; not, I can assure you, gentlemen, in flowery language... decked out with fine words and phrases; no, what you will hear will be a straightforward speech in the first words that occur to me, confident as I am in the justice of my cause; and I do not want any of you to expect anything different.

It is better to suffer wrong than to do wrong

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

I only know, I know nothing

B]y observing objects with my eyes and trying to comprehend them with each of my other senses I might blind my soul altogether... [like] when [people] watch and study an eclipse of the sun; they really do sometimes injure their eyes, unless they study its reflection in water or some other medium.

W]hen death comes to a man, the mortal part of him dies, but the immortal part retires at the approach of death and escapes unharmed and indestructible... [I]t is as certain as anything can be... that soul is immortal and imperishable, and that our souls will really exist in the next world.

And now we go, you to your lives, and I to death, and which of us goes to the better only God knows

For each of them, men, is able, going into each of the cities, to persuade the young-who can associate with whomever of their own citizens they wish to for free-they persuade these young men to leave off their associations with the latter, and to associate with themselves instead, and to give them money and acknowledge gratitude besides.

I am likely to be wiser than he to this small, extent, that I do not think I know what I do not know