Socrates quotes

To know the good is to do the good.
Beware the barrenness of a busy life.

The unexamined life is not worth living.

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

Wisdom begins in wonder.

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

I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.

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

Let him that would move the world first move himself.

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

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

The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.

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.

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

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

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.

Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.

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

Envy is the ulcer of the soul.

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

Thou shouldst eat to live; not live to eat.

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

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

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.

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

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, public as well as private. This is my teaching, and if this is the doctrine which corrupts the youth, I am a mischievous person.

Be as you wish to seem.

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

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

It is not living that matters, but living rightly.

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