Socrates

Socrates (c. 469 BC - 399 BC) was a Greek philosopher who was pronounced by the Delphic oracle the wisest of men. This Athenian philosopher was the son of Sophroniscus, a statuary, and Phænarete, a midwife. He was brought up to his father's profession, in which it would seem he gave promise of success. He lived all his days in Athens, and gathered about him as his pupils all the ingenuous youth of the city. He wrote no book, propounded no system, and founded no school, but was ever abroad in the thoroughfares in all weather talking to whoso would listen, and instilling into all and sundry a love of justice and truth. Known for thinking afresh in all matters he encountered, the intellectual leader of Greece had many followers. He even taught Plato. However, he used to ask inconvenient questions which earned him enemies.

Of quacks and pretenders he was the sworn foe, and he cared not what enmity he provoked if he could persuade one and another to think and do what was right. "He was so pious," says Xenophon in his "Memorabilia," "that he did nothing without the sanction of the gods; so just, that he never wronged any one, even in the least degree; so much master of himself, that he never preferred the agreeable to the good; so wise, that in deciding on the better and the worse he never faltered; in short, he was the best and happiest man that could possibly exist;" he failed not to incur enmity, and his enemies persecuted him to death; he was charged with not believing in the State religion, with introducing new gods, and corrupting the youth, convicted by a majority of his judges and condemned to die; thirty days elapsed between the passing of the sentence and its execution, during which period he held converse with his friends and talked of the immortality of the soul; to an offer of escape he turned a deaf ear, drank the hemlock potion prepared for him with perfect composure, and died; "the difference between Socrates and Jesus Christ," notes Carlyle in his "Journal," "the great Conscious, the immeasurably great Unconscious; the one cunningly manufactured, the other created, living and life-giving; the epitome this of a grand and fundamental diversity among men; but did any truly great man ever," he asks, "go through the world without offence, all rounded in, so that the current moral systems could find no fault in him? most likely never".

Wisdom & Quotes

• The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.
• Understanding a question is half an answer.
• Nothing can harm a good man, either in life or after death.

- Quoted by Plato in "Apology"

• Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.
• I am a citizen, not of Athens or Greece, but of the world.

- quoted by Plutarch in "De Exilio"

• How many things I can do without - in the marketplace!.

- quoted in" Lives of Eminent philosophers" by Diogenes Laertius

• The unexamined life is not worth living.

-quoted by Plato in "Apology"

• It is not living that matters, but living rightly.
• Pay attention to the young, and make them just as good as possible.

- quoted in "Euthyphro" by Plato

• I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.

- quoted in "Lives of the Philosophers" by Diogenes Laertius

• The rest of the world lives to eat, while I eat to live.

quoted in "Lives of the Philosophers" by Diogenes Laertius

• To fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise, without being wise: for it is to think that we know what we do not know.

- quoted in Apology by Plato

• I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.
• The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
• Virtue does not come from money, but from virtue comes money and all other good things to man, both to the individual and to the state.

- quoted by Plato in Apology

• Not life, but a good life, is to be chiefly valued.

- quoted by Plato in Crito

• It is never right to do wrong or to requite wrong with wrong, or when we suffer evil to defend ourselves by doing evil in return.

- quoted by Plato in Crito

• It is perfectly certain that the soul is immortal and imperishable, and our souls will actually exist in another world.

- quoted by Plato in Phaedo

• But, my dearest Agathon, it is truth which you cannot contradict; you can without any difficulty contradict Socrates.

- quoted by Plato in Symposium

• The easiest and noblest way is not to be crushing others, but to be improving yourselves.
• To find yourself, think for yourself.
• He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.
• Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.
• Be nicer than necessary to everyone you meet. Everyone is fighting some kind of battle.
• Wisdom begins in wonder.
• To move the world, we must first move ourselves.
• 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.
• Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.
• We can do nothing without the body, let us always take care that it is in the best condition to sustain us.
• It is better to change an opinion than to persist in a wrong one.
• To be uncertain is to be uncomfortable, but to be certain is to be ridiculous.
• Smart people learn from everything and everyone. Average people from their experiences. Stupid people already have all the answers.
• Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people.
• The mind is everything; what you think you become.
• The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.
• I call myself a peaceful warrior because the battles we fight are on the inside.
• Better to do a little well, than a great deal badly.
• Beware the barrenness of a busy life.
• What screws us up the most in life is the picture in our heads of what it’s supposed to be.
• 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.
• As to marriage or celibacy, let a man take which course he will, he will be sure to repent.
• From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.
• Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.
• Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior.
• 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.
• False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.
• I was really too honest a man to be a politician and live.
• Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings, so that you shall gain easily 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.
• An honest man is always a child.
• The hottest love has the coldest end.
• I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.
• There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.
• Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.
• 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.
• Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.
• Every action has its pleasures and its price.
• 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.
• Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.
• 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.
• Crito, we owe a cock to Aesculapius; please pay it and don't forget it.

- Socrates's last words; quoted by Plato in Phaedo

Thucydides