Socrates quotes

There is no illness of the body except for the mind

In childhood be modest, in youth temperate, in adulthood just, and in old age prudent.

Do not grieve over someone who changes all of the sudden. It might be that he has given up acting and returned to his true self.

The wise man seeks death all his life, and for this reason death is not terrifying to him.

Who knows if to live is to be dead, and to be dead, to live? And we really, it may be, are dead; in fact I once heard sages say that we are now dead, and the body is our tomb.

Regard your good name as the richest jewel yoou can possibly be possessed of.

Those who want the fewest things are nearest to the gods.

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

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

The uninitiated are those who believe in nothing except what they can grasp in their hands, and who deny the existence of all that is invisible.

To find yourself, think for yourself.

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

All that I know is nothing - I'm not even sure of that.

The easiest and noblest way is not to be crushing others, but to be improving yourselves.

The more I learn, the less I realize I know.

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.

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.

He is the richest who is content with the least.

True wisdom lies in one's confession about the limits of one's knowledge.

I know you won't believe me, but the highest form of Human Excellence is to question oneself and others.

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.

Lies are the greatest murder. They kill the Truth.

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

An education obtained with money is worse than no education at all.

Marry a good woman, and be happy the rest of your life. Or, marry a bad, and become a good philosopher

The perfect human being is all human beings put together, it is a collective, it is all of us together that make perfection.

There's no good answer to a question you didn't hear

This is a universe that does not favor the timid.

To move the world we must move ourselves.

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.

Death offers mankind a full view of truth.

If what you want to tell me is neither True nor Good nor even Useful, why tell it to me at all

The first key to greatness is to be in reality what we appear to be.

When a woman is allowed to become a man's equal, she becomes his superior.

What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?

Trust not a woman when she weeps, for it is her nature to weep when she wants her will.

Marry or marry not, in any either case you'll regret it

It is better to make a mistake with full force of your being than to carefully avoid mistakes with a trembling spirit.

The true Wisdom is in recognizing our own ignorance.

Do it because it's in your heart. Not because you want something in return. Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.

Fear of women love more than hate the man.

To Believe without evidence and demonstration is an act of ignorance and folly

If he who does not know kept silent, discord would cease.

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?

I don't care what people say about me. I do care about my mistakes.

You don't know what you don't know.

The man who is truly wise knows that he knows very little.

She soars on her own wings.

Four things belong to a judge: to hear courteously, to answer wisely, to consider soberly, and to decide impartially.

It is possible that a man could live twice as long if he didn't spend the first half of his life acquiring habits that shortens the other half

Remember, no human condition is ever permanent. Then you will not be overjoyed in good fortune nor too scornful in misfortune.

There is no possession more valuable than a good and faithful friend.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is a habit.

I shall never fear or avoid things of which I do not know.

If you can do only a little. Do what you can. What you cannot enforce, do not command.

I am a Citizen of the World, and my Nationality is Goodwill.

Only the extremely ignorant or the extremely intelligent can resist change.

To fear death is nothing other than to think oneself wise when one is not. For it is to think one knows what one does not know. No one knows whether death may not even turn out to be the greatest blessings of human beings. And yet people fear it as if they knew for certain it is the greatest evil.

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

Understanding a question is half an answer.

The unexamined life is not worth living.

Awareness of ignorance is the beginning of wisdom.

Sometimes you have to let go to see if there was anything worth holding onto.

I am a fool, but I know I'm a fool and that makes me smarter than you.

Wisdom begins in wonder.

Life without enquiry is not worth living for a man.

Only the knowledge that comes from inside is the real Knowledge

There is no learning without remembering.

Be the kind of person that you want people to think you are.

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

Prefer knowledge to wealth, for the one is transitory, the other perpetual.

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

Obligation sends the children to bed on time, but love tucks the covers in around their necks and passes out kisses and hugs. Yesterday is about experience; tomorrow is about hope; today is about transitioning from one to the other. The happiest people on earth don't have the best of everything... they make the best of everything I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.

The years wrinkle our skin, but lack of enthusiasm wrinkles our soul.

Through your rags I see your vanity.

In every person there is a sun. Just let them shine.

When you propose ridiculous things to believe, too many men will choose to believe nothing at all.

Whom do I call educated? First, those who manage well the circumstances they encounter day by day. Next, those who are decent and honorable in their intercourse with all men, bearing easily and good naturedly what is offensive in others and being as agreeable and reasonable to their associates as is humanly possible to be... those who hold their pleasures always under control and are not ultimately overcome by their misfortunes... those who are not spoiled by their successes, who do not desert their true selves but hold their ground steadfastly as wise and sober - minded men.

When you want success as badly as you want the air, then you will get it. There is no other secret of success.

It is a disgrace to grow old through sheer carelessness before seeing what manner of man you may become by developing your bodily strength and beauty to their highest limit.

My friend...care for your psyche...know thyself, for once we know ourselves, we may learn how to care for ourselves

A free soul ought not to pursue any study slavishly, for nothing that is learned under compulsion stays with the mind.

Do not do to others what angers you if done to you by others.

The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they alone knew everything and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with them. As for girls, they are forward, immodest and unwomanly in speech, behaviour and dress.

They are not only idle who do nothing, but they are idle also who might be better employed.

Better to do a little well, then a great deal badly.

Do not go through life like leaf blown from here to there believing whatever you are told.

I have not sought during my life to amass wealth and to adorn my body, but I have sought to adorn my soul with the jewels of wisdom, patience, and above all with a love of liberty.

When I was young, I believed that life might unfold in an orderly way, according to my hopes and expectations. But now I understand that the Way winds like a river, always changing, ever onward.. My journeys revealed that the Way itself creates the warrior; that every path leads to peace, every choice to wisdom. And that life has always been, and will always be, arising in Mystery.

No one can teach, if by teaching we mean the transmission of knowledge, in any mechanical fashion, from one person to another. The most that can be done is that one person who is more knowledgeable than another can, by asking a series of questions, stimulate the other to think, and so cause him to learn for himself.

The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.

We are what we think we are

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

Falling down is not a failure. Failure comes when you stay where you have fallen.

Every action has its pleasures and its price.

The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.

The friend must be like money, that before you need it, the value is known.

I call myself a Peaceful Warrior... because the battles we fight are on the inside.

Wisdom adorneth riches and casteth a shadow over poverty.

Silence is a profound melody, for those who can hear it above all the noise.

An honest man is always a child.

Nothing is so well learned as that which is discovered.

A multitude of books distracts the mind.

Serenity, regularity, absence of vanity,Sincerity, simplicity, veracity, equanimity, Fixity, non-irritability, adaptability, Humility, tenacity, integrity, nobility, magnanimity, charity, generosity, purity. Practise daily these eighteen "ities" You will soon attain immortality.

It is better to suffer an injustice than to commit one

Wisdom is knowing what you don't know.

Improve yourself by other men's writings thus attaining effortlessly what they acquired through great difficulty.

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

Let the questions be the curriculum.

The highest realms of thought are impossible to reach without first attaining an understanding of compassion.

Most people, including ourselves, live in a world of relative ignorance. We are even comfortable with that ignorance, because it is all we know. When we first start facing truth, the process may be frightening, and many people run back to their old lives. But if you continue to seek truth, you will eventually be able to handle it better. In fact, you want more! It's true that many people around you now may think you are weird or even a danger to society, but you don't care. Once you've tasted the truth, you won't ever want to go back to being ignorant

wealth does not bring goodness, but goodness brings wealth and every other blessing, both to the individual and to the state

If you want to be wrong then follow the masses.

Give me beauty in the inward soul; and may the outward and inward may be one.

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

All things in moderation, including moderation.

The greatest of all mysteries is the man himself.

There are two kinds of disease of the soul, vice and ignorance.

If you would seek health, look first to the spine.

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.

The real danger in life is not death, but living an evil life.

How can you call a man free when his pleasures rule over him.

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

We can do nothing without the body, let us always take care that it is in the best condition to sustain us.