Socrates Quotes

"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."

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

"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."

"She soars on her own wings."

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

"By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher...and that is a good thing for any man."

"Happiness is unrepentant pleasure."

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

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

"The beginning of wisdom is a definition of terms."

"The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms."

"The Delphic oracle said I was the wisest of all the Greeks. It is because I alone, of all the Greeks, know that I know nothing."

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

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

"Living well and beautifully and justly are all one thing."

"Nothing is to be preferred before justice."

"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 will become happy, and if you get a bad one you will become a philosopher. Socrates (470-399 B.C.)"

"To find yourself, think for yourself."

"The hottest love has the coldest end."