Nobody epitomized the wisdom of Greek philosophy more than Socrates. His sayings contain tremendous knowledge that is sadly lacking in our 21st century. Here is a collection of the most famous Socrates quotes for your enjoyment.
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?
No one portrayed the wisdom of Greek philosophy better than Socrates – the most famous of all ancient philosophers. Socrates spoke on life, death, wisdom, etc. Here is a collection of Socrates quotes on education.
“Envy is the ulcer of the soul.”
“Enjoy yourself — it’s later than you think.”
“Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.”
“Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for.”
“Do you know that the spectator is the last of the rings which, as I am saying, receive the power of the original magnet from one another? The rhapsode like yourself and the actor are intermediate links, and the poet himself is the first of them. Through all these the God sways the souls of [...]
“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, [...]
“Do not do to others what angers you if done to you by others.”
“Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.”
“Children nowadays are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannise their teachers.”
“Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.”
“Call no man unhappy until he is married.”
“Beauty is the bait which with delight allures man to enlarge his kind.”
“Beware of the barrenness of a busy life.”
“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.”
“Be nicer than necessary to everyone you meet. Everyone is fighting some kind of battle.”
“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.”
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”
“Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.”
“Be as you wish to seem.”
“Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.”
“As to marriage or celibacy, let a man take which course he will, he will be sure to repent.”
“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? “
“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 [...]
“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 [...]
“As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.”
“An honest man is always a child.”
“An education obtained with money is worse than no education at all”
“An unexamined life is not worth living”
“All men’s souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine.”
“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.”
A multitude of books distracts the mind.