Thursday, April 8, 2010

Quotes from Socrates

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.

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

An honest man is always a child.

As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.

As to marriage or celibacy, let a man take which course he will, he will be sure to repent.

Be as you wish to seem.

Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.

Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.

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.

Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.

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

False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.

From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.

He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy.

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

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.

I only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity for doing harm; then they might have an unlimited power for doing good.

I was really too honest a man to be a politician and live.

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

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.

It is not living that matters, but living rightly.

Let him that would move the world first move himself.

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

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

The end of life is to be like God, and the soul following God will be like Him.

The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.

The unexamined life is not worth living.

The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.

Wisdom begins in wonder.

Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.

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