Best 394 quotes of Socrates on MyQuotes

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

Admitting one's ignorance is the first step in acquiring knowledge.

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

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

All of the wisdom of this world is but a tiny raft upon which we must set sail when we leave this earth. If only there was a firmer foundation upon which to sail, perhaps some divine word.

All wars are fought for the acquisition of wealth

A man can no more make a safe use of wealth without reason than he can of a horse without a bridle.

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.

A multitude of books distracts the mind.

And I say let a man be of good cheer about his soul. When the soul has been arrayed in her own proper jewels - temperance and justice, and courage, and nobility and truth - she is ready to go on her journey when the hour comes.

And the same things look bent and straight when seen in water and out of it, and also both concave and convex, due to the sight's being mislead by the colors, and every sort of confusion of this kind is plainly in our soul. And, then, it is because they take advantage of this affection in our nature that shadow painting, and puppeteering, and many other tricks of the kind fall nothing short of wizardry.

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

An honest man is always a child. [Lat., Semper bonus homo tiro est.]

An honest man is always a child.

Antiphon, as another man gets pleasure from a good horse, or a dog, or a bird, I get even more pleasure from good friends. And if I have something good, I teach it to them, and I introduce them to others who will be useful to them with respect to virtue. And together with my friends I go through the treasures of wise men of old which they left behind written in books, and we peruse them. If we see something good, we pick it out and hold it to be a great profit, if we are able to prove useful to one another.

An unexamined life is a life of no account.

Aren't you ashamed to be concerned so much about making all the money you can and advancing your reputation and prestige, while for truth and wisdom and the improvement of your souls you have no thought or car?

Are you not ashamed of heaping up the greatest amount of money and honor and reputation, and caring so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul?

Are you not ashamed of your eagerness to possess as much wealth, reputation, and honors as possible, while you do not care for nor give thought to wisdom or truth, or the best possible state of your soul?

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

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.

Awareness of ignorance is the beginning of wisdom.

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

Be as you wish to seem.

Beauty comes first. Victory is secondary. What matters is joy.

Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.

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

Before the birth of Love, many fearful things took place through the empire of necessity; but when this god was born, all things rose to men.

Beloved Pan and all ye other gods who haunt this place, give me beauty in the inward soul; and may the outward and the inward man be one.

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.

Besides, it is a shame to let yourself grow old through neglect before seeing how you can develop the maximum beauty and strength of body; and you can have this experience if your are negligent, because these things don't normally happen by themselves.

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

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.

But already it is time to depart, for me to die, for you to go on living; which of us takes the better course, is concealed from anyone except God.

By all implies marry if you get a great wife/husband, you are going to be pleased. If you get a bad a single, you are going to become a philosopher.

By far the greatest and most admirable form of wisdom is that needed to plan and beautify cities and human communities.

By means of beauty all beautiful things become beautiful.

Contentment is natural wealth.

Creation is man's immortality and brings him nearest to the gods.

Death offers mankind a full view of truth.

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.

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

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

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.

Do you suppose that I should have lived as long as I have if I had moved in the sphere of public life, and conducting myself in that sphere like an honorable man, had always upheld the cause of right, and conscientiously set this end above all other things? Not by a very long way, gentlemen; neither would any other man.

Either I do not corrupt the young or, if I do, it is unwillingly.

Envy is the ulcer of the soul.

Every action has its pleasures and its price.

Every pleasure or pain has a sort of rivet with which it fastens the soul to the body and pins it down and makes it corporeal, accepting as true whatever the body certifies.

Exercise till the mind feels delight in reposing from the fatigue.