Famous Quotes by Socrates

Socrates was a well- known ancient Greek archetypal philosopher as well as co-founder of western philosophy. He was recognized for his teachings and his thoughts. There is nothing much known about his life expect from the things disclosed by is students, together with Plato. Some of his powerful thoughts are listed here.

1. “To find yourself, think for yourself.” - Socrates
2. “Let him that would move the world, first move himself.” - Socrates
3. “One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing.” - Socrates
4. “I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.” - Socrates
5. “The unexamined life is not worth living.” - Socrates
6. “False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.” - Socrates
7. “The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.” - Socrates
8. “Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.” - Socrates
9. “I am not an Athenian, nor a Greek, but a citizen of the world.” - Socrates
10. “From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.” - Socrates
11. “Enjoy yourself — it’s later than you think.” - Socrates
12. “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
13. “Life contains but two tragedies. One is not to get your heart’s desire; the other is to get it.” - Socrates
14. “Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.” - Socrates
15. “The hottest love has the coldest end.” - Socrates
16. “Know thyself Self-knowledge.” - Socrates
17. “Worthless people love only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.” - Socrates
18. “Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.” - Socrates
19. “There is only one good — knowledge; and only one evil — ignorance.” - Socrates
20. “An education obtained with money is worse than no education at all Education.” - Socrates
21. “Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior.” - Socrates
22. “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.” - Socrates
23. “The end of life is to be like God, and the soul following God will be like Him.” - Socrates
24. “He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.” - Socrates
25. “The envious person grows lean with the fatness of their neighbor.” - Socrates
26. “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.” - Socrates
27. “If a man is proud of his wealth, he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it.” - Socrates
28. “The fewer our wants the more we resemble the Gods.” - Socrates
29. “Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.” - Socrates
30. “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.” - Socrates
31. “Happiness is unrepentant pleasure.” - Socrates
32. “Call no man unhappy until he is married.” - Socrates
33. “What a lot of things there are a man can do without.” - Socrates
34. “I was really too honest a man to be a politician and live.” - Socrates
35. “An unexamined life is not worth living.” - Socrates
36. “Fame is the perfume of heroic deeds.” - Socrates
37. “Remember, no human condition is ever permanent. Then you will not be overjoyed in good fortune nor too scornful in misfortune.” - Socrates
38. “Nothing is to be preferred before justice.” - Socrates
39. “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.” - Socrates
40. “The nearest way to glory is to strive to be what you wish to be thought to be.” - Socrates
41. “How many are the things I can do without!” - Socrates
42. “Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.” - Socrates
43. “A multitude of books distracts the mind.” - Socrates
44. “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.” - Socrates
45. “Slanderers do not hurt me because they do not hit me.” - Socrates
46. “The hour of departure has arrived and we go our ways; I to die, and you to live. Which is better? Only God knows.” - Socrates
47. “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” - Socrates
48. “Crito, I owe a cock to Asclepius; will you remember to pay the debt? Famous last words” - Socrates
49. “I only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity for doing harm; then they might have an unlimited power for doing good.” - Socrates
50. “They are not only idle who do nothing, but they are idle also who might be better employed.” - Socrates
51. “The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.” - Socrates
52. “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.” - Socrates
53. “True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.” - Socrates
54. “I pray Thee, O God, that I may be beautiful within.” - Socrates
55. “Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions, but those who kindly reprove thy faults.” - Socrates
56. “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
57. “He is rich who is content with the least; for contentment is the wealth of nature.” - Socrates
58. “In childhood be modest, in youth temperate, in adulthood just, and in old age prudent.” - Socrates
59. “The comic and the tragic lie inseparably close, like light and shadow.” - Socrates
60. “See one promontory, one mountain, one sea, one river and see all.” - Socrates
61. “The beginning of wisdom is a definition of terms.” - Socrates
62. “Give me beauty in the inward soul; may the outward and the inward man be at one.” - Socrates
63. “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.” - Socrates
64. “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.”
65. “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.” - Socrates

We hope that you must have enjoyed reading some popular quotes by Socrates; if you have more quotes by Socrates then do share then through your comments.