Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions, but those who kindly reprove thy faults.
—Socrates
Topics: Reform, Praise, Correction, Criticism
I must first know myself, as the Delphian inscription says; to be curious about that which is not my concern, while I am still in ignorance of my own self, would be ridiculous. And therefore I bid farewell to all this; the common opinion is enough for me. For, as I was saying, I want to know not about this, but about myself: am I a monster more complicated and swollen with passion than the serpent Typho, or a creature of a gentler and simpler sort, to whom Nature has given a diviner and lowlier destiny?
—Socrates
Topics: Reflection
Give me beauty in the inward soul; may the outward and the inward man be at one.
—Socrates
Topics: Control
I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.
—Socrates
Topics: Intelligence
Slanderers do not hurt me because they do not hit me.
—Socrates
Topics: Insults, Slander
Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior.
—Socrates
Topics: Feminism, Women
My advice to you is to get married. If you find a good wife, you’ll be happy; if not, you’ll become a philosopher.
—Socrates
Topics: Become, Philosophy, Advice, Happy, Good, Wife, Vice, Marriage
One word frees us Of all the weight and pain in life, That word is Love
—Socrates
Topics: Romance
I pray thee, O God, that I may be beautiful within.
—Socrates
Topics: Beauty, Love
Fame is the perfume of heroic deeds.
—Socrates
Topics: One liners, Fame
The beginning of wisdom is a definition of terms.
—Socrates
Topics: Wisdom
False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.
—Socrates
Topics: Attitude
The comic and the tragic lie inseparably close, like light and shadow.
—Socrates
Topics: Humor
All men’s souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are both immortal and divine.
—Socrates
Topics: Immortality
How many things there are which I do not want.
—Socrates
Topics: Appreciation, Simplicity, Blessings, Gratitude
Get not your friends by bare compliments, but by giving them sensible tokens of your love. It is well worth while to learn how to win the heart of a man the right way. Force is of no use to make or preserve a friend, who is an animal that is never caught nor tamed but by kindness and pleasure. Excite them by your civilities, and show them that you desire nothing more than their satisfaction; oblige with all your soul that friend who has made you a present of his own.
—Socrates
Topics: Friendship
Let him that would move the world, first move himself.
—Socrates
Topics: Action, Leadership, Influence
Man, know thyself.
—Socrates
Topics: Self-Discovery
I am not an Athenian, nor a Greek, but a citizen of the world.
—Socrates
Topics: Humankind, Humanity
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
Be of good cheer about death, and know of a certainty, that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.
—Socrates
Topics: Death
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.
—Socrates
Topics: Respect, Respectability
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
To fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise, without being wise: for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For anything that men can tell, death may be the greatest good that can happen to them: but they fear it as if they knew quite well that it was the greatest of evils. And what is this but that shameful ignorance of thinking that we know what we do not know?
—Socrates
Topics: Nature, Death
The fewer our wants, the nearer we resemble the gods.
—Socrates
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
Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.
—Socrates
Topics: Luxury, Contentment, One liners
Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.
—Socrates
Topics: Beauty
Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued.
—Socrates
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
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Plato Ancient Greek Philosopher
- Heraclitus Ancient Greek Philosopher
- Epictetus Ancient Greek Philosopher
- Aristotle Ancient Greek Philosopher
- Pythagoras Greek Philosopher
- Xenocrates Greek Philosopher, Scientist
- Epicurus Greek Philosopher
- Bias of Priene Greek Orator
- Plotinus Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mystic
- Nikos Kazantzakis Greek Novelist, Statesman
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