Socrates Quotes

“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 kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

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

“Be true to thine own self.”

“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.”

“Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.”

“Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.”

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

“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.”

“Envy is the ulcer of the soul.”

“Every action has its pleasures and its price.”

“Everyone wants to tell you what to do and what’s good for you. They don’t want you to find your own answers, they want you to believe theirs.”

“From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.”

“He is rich who is content with the least; for contentment is the wealth of nature.”

“He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.”

“He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.”

“How many things can I do without?”

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

“I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.”

“I know you won't believe me, but the highest form of human excellence is to question oneself and others.”

“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.”

“If you want to be a good saddler, saddle the worst horse; for if you can tame one, you can tame all.”

“Intelligent individuals learn from every thing and every one; average people, from their experiences. The stupid already have all the answers.”

“It is better to change an opinion than to persist in a wrong one.”

“Know thyself.”

“Let him who would move the world first move himself.”

“Life contains but two tragedies. One is not to get your heart’s desire; the other is to get it.”