Socrates quotes:

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

Ordinary people seem not to realize that those who really apply themselves in the right way to philosophy are directly and of their own accord preparing themselves for dying and death.

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 only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

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.

The unexamined life is not worth living.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.

Wisdom begins in wonder.

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.

Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior.

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

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

To express oneself badly is not only faulty as far as the language goes, but does some harm to the soul."

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

One who is injured ought not to return the injury, for on no account can it be right to do an injustice.

Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.

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

Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.

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

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.

Be of good cheer about death and know this as a truth, that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death

He who has lived as a true philosopher has reason to be of good cheer when he is about to die, and that after death he may hope to receive the greatest good in the other world.

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.

If thou continuous to take delight in idle argumentation thou mayest be qualified to combat with the sophists, but will never know how to live with men.

I am a citizen, not of Athens, or Greece, but of the world.

The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness; for that runs faster than death.

The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.

Young people nowadays love luxury; they have bad manners and contempt for authority. They show disrespect for old people... contradict their parents, talk constantly in front of company, gobble their food and tyrannize their teachers.

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

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.

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

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.

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

I believe that we cannot live better than in seeking to become better, nor more agreeably than having a clear conscience.

The comic and the tragic lie inseparably close, like light and shadow.

Contentment is natural wealth.

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.

The cure of many diseases remains unknown to the physicians of Hellos (Greece) because they do not study the whole person.

The hour of departure has arrived and we go our ways; I to die, and you to live. Which is better? Only God knows.

An honest man is always a child.

To need nothing is divine, and the less a man needs the nearer does he approach to divinity.

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

If we pursue our habit of eating animals, and if our neighbour follows a similar path, will we need to go to war against our neighbour to secure greater pasturage, because ours will not be enough to sustain us, and our neighbour will have a similar need to wage war on us for the same reason.

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.

The soul then, as being immortal, and having been born again many times, and having seen all things that exist, whether in this world or in the world below, has knowledge of them all . . . all enquiry and all learning is but recollection.

Life without enquiry is not worth living.

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

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.

In every sort of danger there are various ways of winning through, if one is ready to do and say anything whatever.

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

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

Fame is the perfume of heroic deeds.

An envious man waxeth lean with the fatness of his neighbors. Envy is the daughter of pride, the author of murder and revenge, the beginner of secret sedition and the perpetual tormentor of virtue. Envy is the filthy slime of the soul; a venom, a poison, or quicksilver which consumeth the flesh and drieth up the marrow of the bones.

It is not the purpose of a juryman's office to give justice as a favor to whoever seems good to him, but to judge according to law, and this he has sworn to do.

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.

To find yourself, think for yourself.

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.

The end of life is to be like unto God; and the soul following God, will be like unto Him; He being the beginning, middle, and end of all things.

Children today are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers.

I am that gadfly which God has attached to the state, and all day long and in all places am always fastening upon you, arousing and persuading and reproaching you.

Regard your good name as the richest jewel you can possibly be possessed of - for credit is like fire; when once you have kindled it you may easily preserve it, but if you once extinguish it, you will find it an arduous task to rekindle it again. The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.

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.

I prefer to be refuted than to refute, for it is a greater good for oneself to be freed from the greatest evil than to free another.

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

From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.

The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world, is to be in reality what we would appear to be, all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice and experience of them.

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.

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.

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.

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

Slanderers do not hurt me because they do not hit me.

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

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.

Be as you wish to seem.

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

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.

To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom.

The individual leads in order that those who are led can develop their potential as human beings and thereby prosper.

Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued." "It is not living that matters, but living rightly. The unexamined life is not worth living.

To live well and honorably and justly are the same thing.

Living well and beautifully and justly are all one thing.

If a man comes to the door of poetry untouched by the madness of the Muses, believing that technique alone will make him a good poet, he and his sane compositions never reach perfection, but are utterly eclipsed by the performances of the inspired madman.

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

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

The Delphic 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.

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

I swear it upon Zeus an outstanding runner cannot be the equal of an average wrestler.

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

No man has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training

I was really too honest a man to be a politician and live.

I am confident that there truly is such a thing as living again, that the living spring from the dead, and that the souls of the dead are in existence.

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.

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

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

Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior

The hour of departure has arrived and we go our ways I to die, and you to live. Which is better? Only God knows

Is it true; is it kind, or is it necessary?

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

Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.

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.

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

We cannot live better than in seeking to become better.

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

When you want wisdom and insight as badly as you want to breathe, it is then you shall have it.

To find the Father of all is hard. And when found, it is impossible to utter Him.

Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.

Wealth does not bring about excellence, but excellence makes wealth and everything else good for men, both individually and collectively.