Thoughts by Socrates Quotes in English Quotations and Sayings

No man on earth who conscientiously opposes either you or any other organized democracy, and flatly prevents a great many wrongs and illegalities from taking place in the state to which he belongs, can possibly escape with his life. The true champion of justice, if he intends to survive even for a short time, must necessarily confine himself to private life and leave politics alone.

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

Well I am certainly wiser than this man. It is only too likely that neither of us has any knowledge to boast of; but he thinks that he knows something which he does not know, whereas I am quite conscious of my ignorance. At any rate it seems that I am wiser than he is to this small extent, that I do not think that I know what I do not know.

I shall never cease from the practice and teaching of philosophy, exhorting anyone whom I meet after my manner, and convincing him, saying: O my friend, why do you who are a citizen of the great and mighty and wise city of Athens, care so much about laying up the greatest amount of money and honor and reputation, and so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul, which you never regard or heed at all? Are you not ashamed of this?

There is one way, then, in which a man can be free from all anxiety about the fate of his soul - if in life he has abandoned bodily pleasures and adornments, as foreign to his purpose and likely to do more harm than good, and has devoted himself to the pleasures of acquiring knowledge, and so by decking his soul not with a borrowed beauty but with its own - with self-control, and goodness, and courage, and liberality, and truth - has fitted himself to await his journey in the next world.

I was attached to this city by the god - though it seems a ridiculous thing to say—as upon a great and noble horse which was somewhat sluggish because of its size and needed to be stirred up by a kind of gadfly. It is to fulfill some such function that I believe the god has placed me in the city. I never cease to rouse each and every one of you, to persuade and reproach you all day long and everywhere I find myself in your company.

If I tell you that I would be disobeying the god and on that account it is impossible for me to keep quiet, you won’t be persuaded by me, taking it that I am ionizing. And if I tell you that it is the greatest good for a human being to have discussions every day about virtue and the other things you hear me talking about, examining myself and others, and that the unexamined life is not livable for a human being, you will be even less persuaded.

Is there not one true coin for which all things ought to exchange?- and that is wisdom; and only in exchange for this, and in company with this, is anything truly bought or sold, whether courage, temperance or justice. And is not all true virtue the companion of wisdom, no matter what fears or pleasures or other similar goods or evils may or may not attend her? But the virtue which is made up of these goods, when they are severed from wisdom and exchanged with one another, is a shadow of virtue only, nor is there any freedom or health or truth in her; but in the true exchange there is a purging away of all these things, and temperance, and justice, and courage, and wisdom herself, are a purgation of them.

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.

Be as you wish to seem.

Neither in war nor yet at law ought any man to use every way of escaping death. For often in battle there is no doubt that if a man will throw away his arms, and fall on his knees before his pursuers, he may escape death; and in other dangers there are other ways of escaping death, if a man is willing to say and do anything. The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness; for that runs faster than death.

Wisdom begins in wonder.

To be is to do.

God only is wise.

Speak, so that I may see you.

I only know that I know nothing.

Through your rags I see your vanity.

An honest man is always a child.

- Quotation

All I know is that I know nothing.

Knowledge will make you be free.

Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.

I know one thing, that I know nothing.

The unexamined life is not worth living.

The misuse of language induces evil in the soul.

I pray Thee, O God, that I may be beautiful within.

The only wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

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

We cannot live better than in seeking to become better.

There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.

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

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

All wars are fought for the acquisition of wealth.

Understanding a question is half the answer.

The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.

Nothing is to be preferred before justice.

It is better to suffer wrong than to do wrong.

I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.

The purpose in life is to develop a strong character.

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

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

They give you the semblance of success, I give you the reality...

Let him that would move the world, first move himself.

There is no greater evil one can suffer than to hate reasonable discourse.

Two things greater than all the things are.On is love and the other is war.

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

The only thing I know is that I know nothing, and i am no quite sure that i know that.

No man is capable of causing great evil without thinking he's doing the right thing.

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

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

I am likely to be wiser than he to this small, extent, that I do not think I know what I do not know.

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

Be slow to fall into friendship, but when you are in, continue firm and constant.

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

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

Socrates Quotes in English

Nature has given us two ears, two eyes, and but one tongue-to the end that we should hear and see more than we speak.

I am likely to be wiser than he to this small, extent, that I do not think I know what I do not know.

I would rather die having spoken after my manner, than speak in your manner and live.

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

The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.

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

I don't know why I did it, I don't know why I enjoyed it, and I don't know why I'll do it again.

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

A man who preserves his integrity no real, long-lasting harm can ever come.

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

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

He who is not content with what he has will not be content with what he would like to have.

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

I am not an Athenian, nor a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

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

Everything is plainer when spoken than when unspoken.

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

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing.

Life without enquiry is not worth living.

Call no man unhappy until he is married.

The mind is everything; what you think you become.

An unconsidered life is not one worth living.

The only thing i know is that i know nothing.

Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.

True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.

I only know one thing, and that is I know nothing.

Happiness is unrepentant pleasure.

The answer I gave myself and the oracle was that it was to my advantage to be as I am.

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

Is something good because the gods approve of it? Or do the gods approve of it because it is good?

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

Mankind is made of two kinds of people: wise people who know they're fools, and fools who think they are wise.

He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.

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

The ancient 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.

If you want to be a good saddler, saddle the worst horse; for if you can tame one, you can tame all.

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

Now the hour to part has come. I go to die, you go to live. Which of us goes to the better lot is known to no one, except the god.

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

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

Children nowadays are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannise their teachers.

Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions; but those who kindly reprove thy faults.

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.

Intelligent individuals learn from every thing and every one; average people, from their experiences. The stupid already have all the answers.

Now it is time that we are going, I to die and you to live; but which of us has the happier prospect is unknown to anyone but God.

The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our separate ways, I to die, and you to live. Which of these two is better only God knows.

A man who really fights for justice must lead a private, not a public, life if he is to survive for even a short time.

Life contains but two tragedies. One is not to get your heart’s desire; the other is to get it.

Nobody is qualified to become a statesman who is entirely ignorant of the problem of wheat.

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

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

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

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

The mind is everything; what you think you become!

He is not only idle who does nothing, but he is idle who might be better employed.

I am convinced that I never wrong anyone intentionally...

The really important thing is not live, but to live well.

Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior.

To move the world we must move ourselves.

Be true to thine own self.

Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.

I only know, I know nothing.

How many things can I do without?

To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom.

Wisdom is knowing you know nothing.

To find yourself, think for yourself.

Be as you wish to seem.

I know that I know nothing.

Wisdom begins in wonder.

I drank what?

The mind is the pilot of the soul.

As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.

What I do not know, I do not think I know.

Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.

All I know is that I know nothing.

I neither know nor think that I know.

May the inward and outward man be as one.

I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.

The more I know, the more I realize I know nothing.

I know I'm intelligent because I know that I know nothing.

It is better to change an opinion than to persist in a wrong one.

If I save my insight, I don’t attend to weakness of eyesight.

One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing'.

I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.

It is only in death that we are truly cured of the 'sickness' of life.

A Life without criticism and status is not a worth living.

The definition of terms is the beginning of wisdom.

The poets are only the interpreters of the Gods.

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

He who would change the world should first change himself.

I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.

Programming is not about what you know. It's about what you can figure out.

Get not your friends by bare compliments, but by giving them sensible tokens of your love.

We gain our first measure of intelligence when we first admit our own ignorance.

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

Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions, but those who kindly reprove thy faults.

Mankind is made of two kinds of people: wise people who know they’re fools, and fools who think they are wise.

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

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.

I will not yield to any man contrary to what is right, for fear of death, even if I should die at once for not yielding.

By all means marry. If you get a good spouse you’ll become happy, while if you get a bad one you’ll become a philosopher.

How can you wonder your travels do you no good, when you carry yourself around with you?

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

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

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

The Only Thing I Know For Sure Is That I Know Nothing At All, For Sure.

People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid.

Well, then, let’s not just trust the likelihood based on painting.

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

I cannot teach anybody anything I can only make them think.

A multitude of books distracts the mind.

One thing that I know, is that I know nothing.

Fame is the perfume of heroic deeds.

How many are the things I can do without!

By means of beauty, all beautiful things become beautiful.

Human nature will not easily find a better helper than eros.

Having the fewest wants, I am nearest to the gods.

Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.

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

The fewer our wants the more we resemble the Gods.

He is rich who is content with the least; for contentment is the wealth of nature.

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

Doing good is a matter of looking after the part of yourself which matters most, namely your soul. *

He who knows not and knows not that he knows not is an incorrigible fool.

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

And in knowing that you know nothing makes you the smartest of all.

See one promontory, one mountain, one sea, one river and see all.

Crito, I owe a cock to Asclepius; will you remember to pay the debt?

Man's greatest privilege is the discussion of virtue" Socrates in The Apology.

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

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

The nearest way to glory is to strive to be what you wish to be thought to be.

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

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

But my dear Crito, why should we care so much about what the majority think?

Be nicer than necessary to everyone you meet. Everyone is fighting some kind of battle.

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

The greatest blessing granted to mankind come by way of madness, which is a divine gift.

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

Through your rags I see your vanity.

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Envy is the ulcer of the soul.

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.

The hottest love has the coldest end.

There is no solution; seek it lovingly.

Thou shouldst eat to live; not live to eat.

Understanding a question is half an answer.

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All I know is that I do not know anything.

Every action has its pleasures and its price.

Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.

The beginning of wisdom is a definition of terms.

I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

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Let him who would move the world first move himself.

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

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Thou should eat to live; not live to eat.

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Those who are hardest to love need it the most.

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

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

In all of us, even in good men, there is a lawless wild-beast nature, which peers out in sleep.

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What a lot of things there are a man can do without.

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From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.

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

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The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.

Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.

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The great honor in the world is to be what we pretend to be.

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Living well and beautifully and justly are all one thing.

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I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.

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Know thyself.

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Smart people learn from everything and everyone, average people from their experiences, stupid people already have all the answers.

And now we go, you to your lives, and I to death, and which of us goes to the better only God knows.

To fear death, gentlemen, is no other then to think oneself wise when one is not, to think one knows what one does not know.

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

The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways - I to die, and you to live. Which is better only god knows.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Remember what is unbecoming to do is also unbecoming to speak of.

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

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

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

No one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all blessings for a man, yet men fear it as if they knew it was the greatest of evils.

Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs; therefore avoid undue elation in prosperity, or undue depression in adversity.

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

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

It is not difficult to avoid death, gentlemen of the jury; it is much more difficult to avoid wickedness, for it runs faster than death.

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.

Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.

I do believe that there are gods, and in a far higher sense than that in which any of my accusers believe in them.

My plainness of speech makes them hate me, and what is their hatred but a proof that I am speaking the truth.

Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people.

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

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

By all means marry. If you get a good wife you will become happy, and if you get a bad one you will become a philosopher.

Virtue does not come from wealth, but. . . wealth, and every other good thing which men have. . . comes from virtue.

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.

No man undertakes a trade he has not learned, even the meanest; yet everyone thinks himself sufficiently qualified for the hardest of all trades, that of government.

Anyone who’s really fighting for justice must live as a private citizen and not as a public figure if he’s going to survive even a short time.

The true champion of justice, if he intends to survive even for a short time, must necessarily confine himself to private life and leave politics alone.

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

Such as thy words are such will thine affections be esteemed and such as thine affections will be thy deeds and such as thy deeds will be thy life ...

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

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.

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.

Why do you wonder that globetrotting does not help you, seeing that you always take yourself with you? The reason that set you wandering is ever at your heels.

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.

Is there anyone to whom you entrust a greater number of serious matters than your wife? And is there anyone with whom you have fewer conversations?

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

You are wrong sir, if you think that a man who is any good at all should take into account the risk of life or death; he should look to this only in his actions, whether what he does is right or wrong.

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

And so they grow richer and richer, and the more they think of making a fortune the less they think of virtue; for when riches and virtue are placed together in the scales of the balance, the one always rises as the other falls.

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.

Well, although I do not suppose that either of us know anything really beautiful & good, I am better off than he is- for he knows nothing & thinks that he knows; I neither know nor think that I know.

You are mistaken, my friend, if you think that a man who is worth anything ought to spend his time weighing up the prospects of life and death. He has only one thing to consider in performing any action; that is, whether he is acting justly or unjustly, like a good man or a bad one.

As for me, all I know is that I know nothing, for when I don't know what justice is, I'll hardly know whether it is a kind of virtue or not, or whether a person who has it is happy or unhappy.

Do you imagine that a city can continue to exist and not be turned upside down, if the legal judgments which are pronounced in it have no force but are nullified and destroyed by private persons?

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.

Could I climb the highest place in Athens, I would lift up my voice and proclaim, "Fellow citizens, why do you burn and scrape every stone to gather wealth, and talk so little care of your children to whom you must one day relinquish all?

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 caring so much for the making of money and for fame and prestige, when you neither think nor care about wisdom and truth and the improvement of your soul?

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.

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.

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?

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.

My method is to call in support of my statements the evidence of a single witness, the man I am arguing with, and to take his vote alone; the rest of the world are nothing to me; I am not talking to them. *

The really important thing is not to live, but to live well. And to live well meant, along with more enjoyable things in life, to live according to your principles.

The triumph of my art is in thoroughly examining whether the thought which the mind of the young man brings forth is a false idol or a noble true birth.

God would seem to indicate to us and not allow us to doubt that these beautiful poems are not human, or the work of man, but divine and the work of God; and that the poets are only the interpreters of the Gods...

I desire only to know the truth, and to live as well as I can... And, to the utmost of my power, I exhort all other men to do the same... I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly conflict.

For the poet is a light and winged and holy thing, and there is no invention in him until he has been inspired and is out of his senses, and the mind is no longer in him: when he has not attained to this state, he is powerless and is unable to utter his oracles.

Would that the majority could inflict the greatest evils, for they would then be capable of the greatest good, and that would be fine, but now they cannot do either. They cannot make a man either wise or foolish, but they inflict things haphazardly.

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.

I soon realized that poets do not compose their poems with knowledge, but by some inborn talent and by inspiration, like seers and prophets who also say many fine things without any understanding of what they say.

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.

I'm wiser than that person. For it's likely that neither of us knows anything fine and good, but he thinks he knows something he doesn't know, whereas I, since I don't in fact know, don't think that I do either. At any rate, it seems that I'm wiser than he in just this one small way: that what I don't know, I don't think I know.

Nothing that other people can do to you can harm you enough to cancel out the benefit you bestow on yourself by acting rightly. It follows that bad people ultimately harm only themselves: nothing can harm a good man either in life or after death.

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.

The shortest and surest way to live with honour in the world, is to be in reality what we would appear to be; and if we observe, we shall find, that all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice of them.

If you don’t get what you want, you suffer; if you get what you don’t want, you suffer; even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can’t hold on to it forever. Your mind is your predicament. It wants to be free of change. Free of pain, free of the obligations of life and death. But change is law and no amount of pretending will alter that reality.

God takes away the minds of poets, and uses them as his ministers, as he also uses diviners and holy prophets, in order that we who hear them may know them to be speaking not of themselves who utter these priceless words in a state of unconsciousness, but that God himself is the speaker, and that through them he is conversing with us.

So I withdrew and thought to myself: 'I am wiser than this man; it is likely that neither of us knows anything worthwhile, but he thinks he knows something when he does not, whereas when I do not know, neither do I think I know; so I am likely to be wiser than he to this small extent, that I do not think I know what I do not know.

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?

We are in fact convinced that if we are ever to have pure knowledge of anything, we must get rid of the body and contemplate things by themselves with the soul by itself. It seems, to judge from the argument, that the wisdom which we desire and upon which we profess to have set our hearts will be attainable only when we are dead and not in our lifetime.

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.

When desire, having rejected reason and overpowered judgment which leads to right, is set in the direction of the pleasure which beauty can inspire, and when again under the influence of its kindred desires it is moved with violent motion towards the beauty of corporeal forms, it acquires a surname from this very violent motion, and is called love.

Thus such another will not easily come to you, men, but if you believe me, you will spare me; but perhaps you might possibly be offended, like the sleeping who are awakened, striking me, believing Anytus, you might easily kill, then the rest of your lives you might continue sleeping, unless the god caring for you should send you another.

I am wiser than this man, for neither of us appears to know anything great and good; but he fancies he knows something, although he knows nothing; whereas I, as I do not know anything, so I do not fancy I do. In this trifling particular, then, I appear to be wiser than he, because I do not fancy I know what I do not know.

Esteemed friend, citizen of Athens, the greatest city in the world, so outstanding in both intelligence and power, aren't you ashamed to care so much to make all the money you can, and to advance your reputation and prestige--while for truth and wisdom and the improvement of your soul you have no care or worry?

I do nothing but go about persuading you all, old and young alike, not to take thought for your persons or your properties, but and chiefly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul. I tell you that virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of man...

If you don't get what you want, you suffer; if you get what you don't want, you suffer; even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can't hold on to it forever. Your mind is your predicament. It wants to be free of change. Free of pain, free of the obligations of life and death. But change is law and no amount of pretending will alter that reality.

Do not trouble about those who practice philosophy, whether they are good or bad; but examine the thing itself well and carefully. And if philosophy appears a bad thing to you, turn every man from it, not only your sons; but if it appears to you such as I think it to be, take courage, pursue it, and practice it, as the saying is, 'both you and your house.

No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.

To fear death, gentlemen, is no other than to think oneself wise when one is not, to think one knows what one does not know. No one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all blessings for a man, yet men fear it as if they knew that it is the greatest of evils.

It is a base thing for a man to wax old in careless self-neglect before he has lifted up his eyes and seen what manner of man he was made to be, in the full perfection of bodily strength and beauty. But these glories are withheld from him who is guilty of self-neglect, for they are not wont to blaze forth unbidden.

And therefore if the head and the body are to be well, you must begin by curing the soul; that is the first and essential thing. And the care of the soul, my dear youth, has to be effected by the use of certain charms, and these charms are fair words; and by them temperance is implanted in the soul, and where temperance comes and stays, there health is speedily imparted, not only to the head, but to the whole body.

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.

For each of them, men, is able, going into each of the cities, to persuade the young-who can associate with whomever of their own citizens they wish to for free-they persuade these young men to leave off their associations with the latter, and to associate with themselves instead, and to give them money and acknowledge gratitude besides.

If it were said that without such bones and sinews and all the rest of them I should not be able to do what I think is right, it would be true; but to say that it is because of them that I do what I am doing, and not through choice of what is best - although my actions are controlled by Mind - would be a very lax and inaccurate form of expression.