Quotes by Socrates

If the soul is immortal, it demands our care not only for that part of time which we call life, but for all time: and indeed it would seem now that it will be extremely dangerous to neglect it. If death were a release from everything, it would be a boon for the wicked. But since the soul is clearly immortal, it can have no escape or security from evil except by becoming as good and wise as it possibly can. For it takes nothing with it to the next world except its education and training: and these, we are told, are of supreme importance in helping or harming the newly dead at the very beginning of his journey there.

To find yourself, think for yourself.

You are wrong sir, if you think that a man who is any good at all should take into account the risk of life or death; he should look to this only in his actions, whether what he does is right or wrong.

Wisdom is knowing you know nothing

If all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be content to take their own and depart.

When you want wisdom and insight as badly as you want to breathe, it is then you shall have it.

The poets are only the interpreters of the gods.

I am a citizen not of Athens or Greece but of the world.

Fame is the perfume of heroic deeds.

How many things there are which I do not want.

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.

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

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

To do is to be.

What most counts is not to live but to live aright.

No man undertakes a trade he has not learned even the meanest yet every one thinks himself sufficiently qualified for the hardest of all trades - that of government.

Living well and beautifully and justly are all one thing.

I am not an Athenian nor a Greek but a citizen of the world.

He is not only idle who does nothing but he is idle who might be better employed.

Four things belong to a judge: to hear courteously to answer wisely to consider soberly and to decide impartially.