Socrates

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

He is rich who is content with the least for contentment is the wealth of nature.

Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior.

One who is injured ought not to return the injury, for on no account can it be right to do an injustice; and it is not right to return an injury, or to do evil to any man, however much we have suffered from him.

By all means marry if you get a good wife youll become happy if you get a bad one youll become a philosopher.

The hottest love has the coldest end.

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

The poets are only the interpreters of the Gods.

It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.

It is not living that matters, but living rightly.

When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.

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

All thinking begins with wondering

The heart of the person before you is a mirror. See there your own form.

An unexamined life is not worth living.

And in knowing that you know nothing, makes you the smartest of all.

Where there is reverence there is fear, but there is not reverence everywhere that there is fear, because fear presumably has a wider extension than reverence.

An honest man is always a child.

Thou shouldst eat to live not live to eat.

Happiness is unrepentant pleasure.

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

Why should we pay so much attention to what the majority thinks?

The soul, like the body, accepts by practice whatever habit one wishes it to contact.

The envious person grows lean with the fatness of their neighbor.

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

My advice to you is to get married. If you find a good wife youll be happy if not youll become a philosopher.

Bad men live that they may eat and drink whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.

By all means marry. If you get a good wife youll become happy. If you get a bad one youll become a philosopher.

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new

This is a universe that does not favor the timid.

I love to go and see all the things I am happy without.

Whenever therefore people are deceived and form opinions wide of the truth it is clear that the error has slid into their minds through the medium of certain resemblances to that truth.

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.

The nearest way to glory is to strive to be what you wish to be thought to be.

Wonder is the beginning of all wisdom.

If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.

If at first you don't succeed, avoid skydiving.

Man must rise above the Earth - to the top of the atmosphere and beyond - for only thus will he fully understand the world in which he lives.

Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.

Our lives are but specks of dust falling through the fingers of time. Like sands of the hourglass so are the days of our lives.

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

The ancient Oracle said that I was the wisest of all the Greeks. It is because I alone, of all the Greeks, know that I know nothing.

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.

No citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training what a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.

The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new.

The greatest blessing granted to mankind come by way of madness which is a divine gift.

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

Let us follow the truth whither so ever it leads.

To find yourself, think for yourself.

Let him that would move the world, first move himself.

Obscurity is dispelled by augmenting the light of discernment, not by attacking the darkness.

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.

Eat to live not live to eat.

As to marriage or celibacy, let a man take which course he will, he will be sure to repent.

Beauty is the bait which with delight allures man to enlarge his kind.

It is a shame for a woman to grow old without ever seeing the strength and beauty of which her body is capable.

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

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.

Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.

The secret to change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.

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

Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm & constant.

Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.

Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.

The unexamined life is not worth living.

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

Death is one of two things. Either it is annihilation, and the dead have no consciousness of anything; or, as we are told, it is really a change: a migration of the soul from one place to another.

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

Be as you wish to seem.

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

Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.

Flattery is like friendship in show but not in fruit

A disorderly mob is no more an army than a heap of building materials is a house.

True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.

Let him that would move the world first move himself.

By all means marry. If you get a good wife youll become happy if you get a bad one youll become a philosopher.

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

Wisdom begins in wonder.

The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.

Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.

To find yourself think for yourself.

People learn more on their own rather than being force fed.

As to marriage or celibacy let a man take which course he will he will be sure to repent.

Having the fewest wants, I am nearest to the gods.

The world's a puzzle; no need to make sense out of it.

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

If a man is proud of his wealth, he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it.

I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.

Once made equal to man woman becomes his superior.

The end of life is to be like God, and the soul following God will be like Him.

Get not your friends by bare compliments, but by giving them sensible tokens of your love.

Be slow to fall into friendship, but when you are in, continue firm and constant.

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

From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.

The greatest flood has the soonest ebb the sorest tempest the most sudden calm the hottest love the coldest end and from the deepest desire oftentimes ensues the deadliest hate.

To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.

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

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

The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.