Socrates

Wind buffs up empty bladders; opinion, fools.
Socrates - Crito," (Plato)
Living well and beautifully and justly are all one thing.

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

The end of life is to be like God, and the soul following God will be like Him.
Socrates - Phaedrus, sct. 275
You are providing for your disciples a show of wisdom without the reality. For, acquiring by your means much information unaided by instruction, they will appear to possess much knowledge, while, in fact, they will, for the most part, know nothing at all; and, moreover, be disagreeable people to deal with, as having become wise in their own conceit, instead of truly wise.

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

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

Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs; therefore avoid undue elation in prosperity, or undue depression in adversity.
Socrates - from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers
Having the fewest wants, I am nearest to the gods.
Socrates - from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers
There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.

Do not do to others what angers you if done to you by others.
Socrates - from Plutarch, How a Young Man Ought to Hear Poems
Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.

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

Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.
Socrates - in Plato, Dialogues, Apology
The unexamined life is not worth living for man.
Socrates - in Plato, Dialogues, Apology
The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways - I to die, and you to live. Which is better God only knows.

Envy is the ulcer of the soul.
Socrates - The Apology
To find yourself, think for yourself.
Socrates - from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers
I know nothing except the fact of my 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.
Socrates - In "Phaedo," sct. 98, by Plato.
I was afraid that by observing objects with my eyes and trying to comprehend them with each of my other senses I might blind my soul altogether.

And in knowing that you know nothing, that makes you the smartest of all.

If a rich man is proud of his wealth, he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it.
Socrates - In "Apology," sct. 21, by Plato.
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.

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

The unexamined life is not worth living.

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.

True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.

Children today are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers.
Socrates - In "1,911 Best Things Anybody Ever Said," ed. Robert Byrne, 1988
Children today are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers.

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

Thou shouldst eat to live; not live to eat.

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

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

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

Remember what is unbecoming to do is also unbecoming to speak of.
Socrates - Quoted in: Plato, Phaedrus, sct. 262.
Whenever, therefore, people are deceived and form opinions wide of the truth, it is clear that the error has slid into their minds through the medium of certain resemblances to that truth.

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

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

Children today are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers.
Socrates - Apology, (Plato)
But already it is time to depart, for me to die, for you to go on living; which of us takes the better course, is concealed from anyone except God.

When the debate is over, slander becomes the tool of the loser.
Socrates - from Plutarch, Of Banishment
I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

He is richest who is content with the least.

The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world is to be in reality what we would appear to be; all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice and experience of them.
Socrates - Quoted in: Plato, Phaedrus.
When desire, having rejected reason and overpowered judgment which leads to right, is set in the direction of the pleasure which beauty can inspire . . .

- Socrates