Socrates Quotes

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

“I seem, then, in just this little thing to be wiser than this man at any rate, that what I do not know I do not think I know either.”

“I myself know nothing, except just a little, enough to extract an argument from another man who is wise and to receive it fairly.”

“Wisdom begins in wonder.”

“It is not living that matters, but living rightly.”

“While I have life and strength I shall never cease from the practice and teaching of philosophy.”

“I am that gadfly which God has attached to the state, and all day long and in all places am always fastening upon you, arousing and persuading and reproaching you.”

“Virtue is not given by money, but from virtue comes money and every other good of man, public as well as private.”

“We ought not to care so much for what the many say of us, but what he, the one man who has understanding of just and unjust, will say, and what the truth will say.”

“It would be better for me that multitudes of men should disagree with me rather than that I, being one, should be out of harmony with myself.”

“One should never do wrong in return, nor mistreat any man, no matter how one has been mistreated by him.”

“The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavour to be what you desire to appear.”

“Be as you wish to seem.”

“Anyone who holds a true opinion without understanding is like a blind man on the right road.”

“In every one of us there are two ruling and directing principles: the one being an innate desire of pleasure; the other, an acquired judgment which aspires after excellence.”

“A system of morality which is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception which has nothing sound in it and nothing true.”

“False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.”

“He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy.”

“I was really too honest a man to be a politician and live.”

“I would rather die having spoken after my manner, than speak in your manner and live.”

“Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.”

“No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death. He and his are not neglected by the gods.”

“The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways: I to die, and you to live. Which is better God only knows.”

“He who has lived as a true philosopher has reason to be of good cheer when he is about to die.”

“Those who really apply themselves in the right way to philosophy are directly and of their own accord preparing themselves for dying and death.”