Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Socrates (Ancient Greek Philosopher)

Socrates (c.469–399 BCE) is regarded as the father of Western philosophy, a thinker whose influence was so decisive that all earlier Greek philosophy is classified as “pre-Socratic.” He redirected inquiry from speculation about the natural world to questions of ethics and the meaning of a virtuous life. His most famous student, Plato, taught Aristotle, who later tutored Alexander the Great, ensuring that the philosophical tradition Socrates initiated spread widely during Alexander’s conquests. Though he wrote nothing and founded no school, Socrates remains one of the three great figures of ancient philosophy, alongside Plato and Aristotle.

Born in Athens, the son of a stonemason, Socrates practiced his father’s trade before turning to philosophy. In middle age he married Xanthippe, with whom he had three sons. He fought bravely as a hoplite in the Peloponnesian War, opposed the collective sentencing of generals after Arginusae in 406 BCE, and refused to cooperate with the Thirty Tyrants. His modest inheritance allowed him to live simply in Athens without regular employment, devoting himself instead to conversation and inquiry. His life reflected the values of moderation and civic duty that he later emphasized in his teaching.

Socrates’s philosophy centered on the pursuit of virtue and the examined life. He encouraged his followers to think independently rather than accept conventional beliefs or superstitions about the gods. According to Plato, he declared, “An unexamined life is not worth living” (Apology, 38b.) His teaching style, later known as the Socratic Method, relied on asking probing questions that exposed contradictions and forced his interlocutors to refine their ideas. His influence was transmitted through the writings of Plato and Xenophon, since Socrates himself left no texts.

His habit of humiliating powerful figures in debate created enemies, and in 399 BCE he was tried for impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens. Convicted, he was sentenced to death and drank a cup of poisonous hemlock in his prison cell, surrounded by friends and disciples. Plato recorded the moment in Phaedo, calling him “the wisest and justest, and the best man I have ever known.” Socrates’s disciples carried forward his legacy, founding schools and writing dialogues that preserved his spirit of inquiry. Through them, his life and death became a cornerstone of Western philosophy.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Socrates

We cannot live better than in seeking to become better, nor more agreeably than in having a clear conscience.
—Socrates
Topics: Conscience

All men’s souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are both immortal and divine.
—Socrates
Topics: Immortality

Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.
—Socrates
Topics: Friendship, Friends

I pray thee, O God, that I may be beautiful within.
—Socrates
Topics: Love, Beauty

Listen not to a tale-bearer or slanderer, for he tells thee nothing out of good will; but as he discovereth of the secrets of others, so he will of thine in turn.
—Socrates
Topics: Slander

The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.
—Socrates
Topics: Evil, Thought, Good, Reason

I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.
—Socrates
Topics: Intelligence

This discussion is not about any chance question, but about the way one should live.
—Socrates

I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.
—Socrates
Topics: Knowledge, Virtues, Wisdom

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

If you love knowledge, you will be a master of knowledge. What you have come to know, pursue by exercise; what you have not learned, seek to add to your knowledge, for it is as reprehensible to hear a profitable saying and not grasp it as to be offered a good gift by one’s friends and not accept it. Believe that many precepts are better than much wealth, for wealth quickly fails us, but precepts abide through all time.
—Socrates
Topics: Knowledge

The Delphic oracle said I was the wisest of all the Greeks. It is because that I alone, of all the Greeks, know that I know nothing.
—Socrates
Topics: Wisdom

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

The fewer our wants, the nearer we resemble the gods.
—Socrates

Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.
—Socrates
Topics: Prayer, Blessings

The tongue of a fool is the key of his counsel, which, in a wise man, wisdom hath in keeping.
—Socrates
Topics: Talking

An unexamined life is not worth living.
—Socrates
Topics: Life, Living, One liners, Philosophy, Nature

Nothing is to be preferred before justice.
—Socrates
Topics: Justice

If all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap, whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be content to take their own and depart.
—Socrates
Topics: Appropriateness, Aptness, Appreciation, Blessings, Adversity, Gratitude, Realism

It is the greatest good for an individual to discuss virtue (aka Kindness, Virtue, Goodness) every day…for the unexamined life is not worth living.
—Socrates
Topics: Growth, Reflection, Education, Life

The envious person grows lean with the fatness of their neighbor.
—Socrates
Topics: Defects, Envy

A man should inure himself to voluntary labor, and not give up to indulgence and pleasure, as they beget no good constitution of body nor knowledge of mind.
—Socrates
Topics: Industry

From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.
—Socrates
Topics: Hatred, Desire, Hate

Get married, in any case. If you happen to get a good mate, you will be happy; if a bad one, you will become philosophical, which is a fine thing in itself.
—Socrates
Topics: Philosophy

I was afraid that by observing objects with my eyes and trying to comprehend them with each of my other senses I might blind my soul altogether.
—Socrates

Be of good hope in the face of death. Believe in this one truth for certain, that no evil can befall a good man either in life or death, and that his fate is not a matter of indifference to the gods.
—Socrates

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
—Socrates
Topics: Wisdom

The hottest love has the coldest end.
—Socrates
Topics: Love, Feelings

He is not only idle who does nothing, but he is idle who might be better employed.
—Socrates
Topics: Purpose, Idleness

Wars and revolutions and battles are due simply and solely to the body and its desires. All wars are undertaken for the acquisition of wealth; and the reason why we have to acquire wealth is the body, because we are slaves in its service.
—Socrates
Topics: Greed

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