Socrates quotes
Athenian philosopher who wrote nothing but transformed Western thought. Through Plato's dialogues he gave us the elenchus — questioning as a path to truth — and died rather than abandon it.
18 passages across 12 themes. More on Socrates.
On self-knowledge
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
“An unexamined life is the unconscious life. Examine yourself.”
“False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.”
On humility
“I know that I know nothing.”
“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”
On truth
“There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.”
“Anyone who holds a true opinion without understanding is like a blind man on the right road.”
On wisdom
“I only wish that wisdom were the kind of thing that flowed ... from the vessel that was full to the one that was empty.”
“Each of these private teachers who work for pay ... inculcates nothing else than these opinions of the multitude which they opine when they are assembled and calls this knowledge wisdom.”
On death
“Either knowledge is not to be attained at all, or if at all, after death. For then, and not til then, the soul will be in herself alone and without the body.”
“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.”
On wonder
“Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.”
On contentment
“He is richest who is content with the least.”
On freedom
“To find yourself, think for yourself.”
On wholeness
“It would be better for me... that multitudes of men should disagree with me rather than that I, being one, should be out of harmony with myself.”
On action
“One should never do wrong in return, nor mistreat any man, no matter how one has been mistreated by him.”
On time
“And now that the hour of departure is appointed to me, this is the hope with which I depart, and not I only, but every man that believes that he has his mind purified.”
On mind
“There is no greater evil one can suffer than to hate reasonable discourse.”