Top 100+ Socrates Quotes

In this list we have gathered the top Socrates quotes for you to read. Socrates is regarded as one of the founders of Western philosopy, and it’s no wonder his quotes have become very popular on multiple forums and channels on the internet in the modern days. Most of the quotes from Socrates can give you great wisdom of the nature of life and also some inspiration on how to live your own life purposefully and successfully. The list has been organized with the most popular Socrates quotes on the top, as all the quotes on this list are ranked by community votes. Feel free to vote your own favourite Socrates quote in order to help it move up the list!

1
Socrates

“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” ― Socrates
2
Socrates

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” ― Socrates
3
Socrates

“I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think” ― Socrates
4
Socrates

“There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.” ― Socrates
5
Socrates

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” ― Socrates
6
Socrates

“Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.” ― Socrates
7
Socrates

“Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people.” ― Socrates
8
Socrates

“To find yourself, think for yourself.” ― Socrates
9
Socrates

“Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.” ― Socrates
10
Socrates

“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.” ― Socrates
11
Socrates

“He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.” ― Socrates
12
Socrates

“Be slow to fall into friendship, but when you are in, continue firm and constant.” ― Socrates
13
Socrates

“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.” ― Socrates
14
Socrates

“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.” ― Socrates
15
Socrates

“Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.” ― Socrates
16
Socrates

“When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.” ― Socrates
17
Socrates

“Know thyself.” ― Socrates
18
Socrates

“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.” ― Socrates
19
Socrates

“The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.” ― Socrates
20
Socrates

“Let him who would move the world first move himself.” ― Socrates
21
Socrates

“Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.” ― Socrates
22
Socrates

“Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.” ― Socrates, Essential Thinkers – Socrates
23
Socrates

“The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.” ― Socrates
24
Socrates

“Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for.” ― Socrates
25
Socrates

“I examined the poets, and I look on them as people whose talent overawes both themselves and others, people who present themselves as wise men and are taken as such, when they are nothing of the sort.

From poets, I moved to artists. No one was more ignorant about the arts than I; no one was more convinced that artists possessed really beautiful secrets. However, I noticed that their condition was no better than that of the poets and that both of them have the same misconceptions. Because the most skillful among them excel in their specialty, they look upon themselves as the wisest of men. In my eyes, this presumption completely tarnished their knowledge. As a result, putting myself in the place of the oracle and asking myself what I would prefer to be — what I was or what they were, to know what they have learned or to know that I know nothing — I replied to myself and to the god: I wish to remain who I am.

We do not know — neither the sophists, nor the orators, nor the artists, nor I— what the True, the Good, and the Beautiful are. But there is this difference between us: although these people know nothing, they all believe they know something; whereas, I, if I know nothing, at least have no doubts about it. As a result, all this superiority in wisdom which the oracle has attributed to me reduces itself to the single point that I am strongly convinced that I am ignorant of what I do not know.” ― Socrates
26
Socrates

“Every action has its pleasures and its price.” ―
27
Socrates

“Do not do to others what angers you if done to you by others.” ― Socrates
28
Socrates

“I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.
[As quoted in Plutarch’s Of Banishment]” ― Socrates
29
Socrates

“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.” ― Socrates
30
Socrates

“Prefer knowledge to wealth, for the one is transitory, the other perpetual.” ― Socrates
31
Socrates

“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.” ― Socrates
32
Socrates

“Beware the barrenness of a busy life.” ― Socrates
33
Socrates

“understanding a question is half an answer” ― Socrates, Essential Thinkers – Socrates
34
Socrates

“Envy is the ulcer of the soul.” ― Socrates
35
Socrates

“The hottest love has the coldest end.” ― Socrates
36
Socrates

“Life contains but two tragedies. One is not to get your heart’s desire; the other is to get it.” ― Socrates
37
Socrates

“Be as you wish to seem.” ― Socrates
38
Socrates

“Thou shouldst eat to live; not live to eat.” ― Socrates
39
Socrates

“I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.” ― Socrates
40
Socrates

“The greatest way to live with honour in this world is to be what we pretend to be.” ― Socrates, Essential Thinkers – Socrates
41
Socrates

“From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.” ― Socrates
42
Socrates

“Be nicer than necessary to everyone you meet. Everyone is fighting some kind of battle.” ― Socrates
43
Socrates

“True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.” ― Socrates
44
Socrates

“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.” ― Socrates
45
Socrates

“Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior.” ― Socrates
46
Socrates

“If you want to be a good saddler, saddle the worst horse; for if you can tame one, you can tame all.” ― Socrates
47
Socrates

“I pray Thee, O God, that I may be beautiful within. ” ― Socrates
48
Socrates

“I pray Thee, O God, that I may be beautiful within. ” ― Socrates
49
Socrates

“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.” ― Socrates
50
Socrates

“The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.” ― Socrates
51
Socrates

“One should never do wrong in return, nor mistreat any man, no matter how one has been mistreated by him.” ― Socrates
52
Socrates

“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.” ― Socrates
53
Socrates

“My friend…care for your psyche…know thyself, for once we know ourselves, we may learn how to care for ourselves” -Socrates” ― Socrates
54
Socrates

“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.” ― Socrates
55
Socrates

“The easiest and noblest way is not to be crushing others, but to be improving yourselves. ” ― Socrates
56
Socrates

“In all of us, even in good men, there is a lawless wild-beast nature, which peers out in sleep.” ― Socrates
57
Socrates

“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.” ― Socrates
58
Socrates

“He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.” ― Socrates
59
Socrates

“The greatest blessing granted to mankind come by way of madness, which is a divine gift.” ― Socrates
60
Socrates

“I only know that I know nothing” ― Socrates
61
Socrates

“Children nowadays are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannise their teachers.” ― Socrates
62
Socrates

“All I know is that I do not know anything” ― Socrates
63
Socrates

“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.” ― Socrates
64
Socrates

“Those who are hardest to love need it the most.” ― Socrates
65
Socrates

“Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions; but those who kindly reprove thy faults.” ― Socrates
66
Socrates

“All men’s souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine.” ― Socrates
67
Socrates

“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?” ― Socrates
68
Socrates

“My advice to you is get married: if you find a good wife you’ll be happy; if not, you’ll become a philosopher.” ― Socrates
69
Socrates

“To be is to do” ― Socrates
70
Socrates

“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.” ― Socrates
71
Socrates

“The highest realms of thought are impossible to reach without first attaining an understanding of compassion.” ― Socrates
72
Socrates

“I did not care for the things that most people care about– making money, having a comfortable home, high military or civil rank, and all the other activities, political appointments, secret societies, party organizations, which go on in our city . . . I set myself to do you– each one of you, individually and in private– what I hold to be the greatest possible service. I tried to persuade each one of you to concern himself less with what he has than with what he is, so as to render himself as excellent and as rational as possible.” ― Socrates
73
Socrates

“Virtue does not come from wealth, but. . . wealth, and every other good thing which men have. . . comes from virtue.” ― Socrates
74
Socrates

“To move the world we must move ourselves.” ― Socrates
75
Socrates

“Through your rags I see your vanity.” ― Socrates
76
Socrates

“The mind is everything; what you think you become” ― Socrates, The Psychology of Fate & of Free Will
77
Socrates

“Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued. ” ― Socrates
78
Socrates

“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.” ― Socrates
79
Socrates

“Wisdom begins in wonder.” ― Socrates
80
Socrates

“I know you won’t believe me, but the highest form of Human Excellence is to question oneself and others.” ― Socrates
81
Socrates

“There is no solution; seek it lovingly ” ― Socrates
82
Socrates

“Is it true; is it kind, or is it necessary?” ― Socrates, Essential Thinkers – Socrates
83
Socrates

“When you want wisdom and insight as badly as you want to breathe, it is then you shall have it.” ― Socrates
84
Socrates

“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.” ― Socrates, Essential Thinkers – Socrates
85
Socrates

“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. ” ― Socrates
86
Socrates

“Living well and beautifully and justly are all one thing.” ― Socrates
87
Socrates

“The misuse of language induces evil in the soul” ― Socrates
88
Socrates

“It is better to change an opinion than to persist in a wrong one.” ― Socrates
89
Socrates

“There is no greater evil one can suffer than to hate reasonable discourse.” ― Socrates
90
Socrates

“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.” ― Socrates
91
Socrates

“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.” ― Socrates
92
Socrates

“Wisdom is knowing you know nothing” ― Socrates
93
Socrates

“One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing’.” ― Socrates, Apology
94
Socrates

“The law presumably says that it is finest to keep as quiet as possible in misfortunes and not be irritated, since the good and bad in such things aren’t plain, nor does taking it hard get one anywhere, not are any of the human things worthy of great seriousness…. One must accept the fall of the dice and settle one’s affairs accordingly– in whatever way argument declares would be best. One must not behave like children who have stumbled and who hold on to the hurt place and spend their time in crying out; rather one must always habituate the soul to turn as quickly as possible to curing and setting aright what has fallen and is sick, doing away with lament by medicine.” ― Socrates
95
Socrates

“How many things can I do without?” ― Socrates, Momentos
96
Socrates

“Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs; therefore avoid undue elation in prosperity, or undue depression in adversity.” ― Socrates
97
Socrates

“I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.” ― Socrates
98
Socrates

“wealth does not bring goodness, but goodness brings wealth and every other blessing, both to the individual and to the state” ― socrates
99
Socrates

“One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing.” ― Socrates
100
Socrates

“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…” ―

Top 100+ Socrates Quotes

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