Socrates Quotes

All I know is that I know nothing.

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npub1s0cra5735s8ccw7pfvqtp4see7t7lkfr0gwrfhkhsfakuxkf5ahs83023h

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Last Notes

2026-09-20 19:21:03 UTC

"Nobody is qualified to become a statesman who is entirely ignorant of the problem of wheat."

2026-09-20 07:21:03 UTC

"Be nicer than necessary to everyone you meet. Everyone is fighting some kind of battle."

2026-09-19 19:21:02 UTC

"Children nowadays are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers."

2026-09-19 07:21:03 UTC

"I will not yield to any man contrary to what is right, for fear of death, even if I should die at once for not yielding."

2026-09-18 19:21:03 UTC

"I desire only to know the truth and to live as well as I can... And, to the utmost of my power, I exhort all other men to do the same... I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly conflict."

2026-09-18 07:21:03 UTC

"Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers."

2026-09-17 19:21:02 UTC

"The really important thing is not to live, but to live well. And to live well meant, along with more enjoyable things in life, to live according to your principles."

2026-09-17 07:21:03 UTC

"For the poet is a light and winged and holy thing, and there is no invention in him until he has been inspired and is out of his senses, and the mind is no longer in him: when he has not attained to this state, he is powerless and is unable to utter his oracles."

2026-09-16 19:21:03 UTC

"How can you wonder your travels do you no good, when you carry yourself around with you?"

2026-09-16 07:21:03 UTC

"The law presumably says that it is finest to keep as quiet as possible in misfortunes and not be irritated, since the good and bad in such things aren't plain, nor does taking it hard get one anywhere, not are any of the human things worthy of great seriousness.... One must accept the fall of the dice and settle one's affairs accordingly-- in whatever way argument declares would be best. One must not behave like children who have stumbled and who hold on to the hurt place and spend their time in crying out; rather one must always habituate the soul to turn as quickly as possible to curing and setting aright what has fallen and is sick, doing away with lament by medicine."

2026-09-15 19:21:03 UTC

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

2026-09-15 07:21:03 UTC

"The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new."

2026-09-14 19:21:03 UTC

"Is it true; is it kind, or is it necessary?"

2026-09-14 07:21:03 UTC

"I neither know nor think that I know."

2026-09-13 19:21:02 UTC

"For the fear of death is indeed the pretense of wisdom, and not real wisdom, being a pretense of knowing the unknown; and no one know whether death, which men in their fear apprehend to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good. Is not this ignorance of a disgraceful sort, the ignorance which is the conceit that a man knows that he does not know? And in this respect only I believe myself to differ from men in general, and may perhaps claim to be wiser than they are: that whereas I know but little of the world below, I do not suppose that I know..."

2026-09-13 07:21:02 UTC

"And now we go, you to your lives, and I to death, and which of us goes to the better only God knows"

2026-09-12 19:21:04 UTC

"The easiest and noblest way is not to be crushing others, but to be improving yourselves."

2026-09-12 07:21:03 UTC

"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."

2026-09-11 19:21:02 UTC

"And now we go, you to your lives, and I to death, and which of us goes to the better only God knows."

2026-09-11 07:21:03 UTC

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

2026-09-10 19:21:02 UTC

"To express one badly is not only faulty as far as the language goes, but does some harm to the soul."

2026-09-10 07:21:03 UTC

"Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people."

2026-09-09 19:21:03 UTC

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

2026-09-09 07:21:03 UTC

2026-09-08 19:21:02 UTC

"Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel."

2026-09-08 07:21:03 UTC

"In all of us, even in good men, there is a lawless wild-beast nature, which peers out in sleep."

2026-09-07 19:21:03 UTC

"By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher ... and that is a good thing for any man."

2026-09-06 19:21:02 UTC

"From the deepest desires often comes the deadliest hate."

2026-09-06 07:21:02 UTC

2026-09-05 19:21:03 UTC

"And therefore if the head and the body are to be well, you must begin by curing the soul; that is the first and essential thing. And the care of the soul, my dear youth, has to be effected by the use of certain charms, and these charms are fair words; and by them temperance is implanted in the soul, and where temperance comes and stays, there health is speedily imparted, not only to the head, but to the whole body."

2026-09-05 07:21:04 UTC

"I thought that as I had failed in the contemplation of true existence, I ought to be careful that I did not lose the eye of my soul; as people may injure their bodily eye by observing and gazing on the sun during an eclipse, unless they take the precaution of looking at the image reflected in the water, or in some similar medium. ...I was afraid that my soul might be blinded altogether if I looked at things with my eyes or tried by the help of my senses to apprehend them. And I thought that I had better had recourse to ideas, and seek in them truth in existence. I dare to say that the simile is not perfect--for I am far from admitting that he who contemplates existence through the medium of ideas, sees them only "through a glass darkly," any more than he who sees them in their working and effects."

2026-09-04 19:21:03 UTC

"Give me beauty in the inward soul; may the outward and the inward man be at one."

2026-09-04 07:21:02 UTC

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

2026-09-03 19:21:02 UTC

"And so they grow richer and richer, and the more they think of making a fortune the less they think of virtue; for when riches and virtue are placed together in the scales of the balance, the one always rises as the other falls."

2026-09-03 07:21:02 UTC

"Be slow to fall into friendship, but when you are in, continue firm and constant."

2026-09-02 19:21:02 UTC

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

2026-09-02 07:21:04 UTC

"An unconsidered life is not one worth living."

2026-09-01 19:21:02 UTC

"Children nowadays are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers."

2026-09-01 07:21:02 UTC

"I neither know nor think that I know"

2026-08-31 19:21:03 UTC

"To express one badly is not only faulty as far as the language goes, but does some harm to the soul."

2026-08-31 07:21:03 UTC

"God would seem to indicate to us and not allow us to doubt that these beautiful poems are not human or the work of man, but divine and the work of God; and that the poets are only the interpreters of the Gods..."

2026-08-30 19:21:03 UTC

"The hottest love has the coldest end."

2026-08-30 07:21:02 UTC

"Neither in war nor yet at law ought any man to use every way of escaping death. For often in battle there is no doubt that if a man will throw away his arms, and fall on his knees before his pursuers, he may escape death; and in other dangers there are other ways of escaping death, if a man is willing to say and do anything. The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness; for that runs faster than death."

2026-08-29 19:21:02 UTC

"Is there not one true coin for which all things ought to exchange?- and that is wisdom; and only in exchange for this, and in company with this, is anything truly bought or sold, whether courage, temperance or justice. And is not all true virtue the companion of wisdom, no matter what fears or pleasures or other similar goods or evils may or may not attend her? But the virtue which is made up of these goods, when they are severed from wisdom and exchanged with one another, is a shadow of virtue only, nor is there any freedom or health or truth in her; but in the true exchange there is a purging away of all these things, and temperance, and justice, and courage, and wisdom herself, are a purgation of them."

2026-08-29 07:21:02 UTC

"I did not care for the things that most people care about– making money, having a comfortable home, high military or civil rank, and all the other activities, political appointments, secret societies, party organizations, which go on in our city . . . I set myself to do you– each one of you, individually and in private– what I hold to be the greatest possible service. I tried to persuade each one of you to concern himself less with what he has than with what he is, so as to render himself as excellent and as rational as possible."

2026-08-28 19:21:02 UTC

"Virtue does not come from wealth, but ... wealth, and every other good thing which men have comes from virtue."

2026-08-28 07:21:03 UTC

"Children nowadays are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers."

2026-08-27 19:21:02 UTC

"To find yourself, think for yourself."

2026-08-27 07:21:03 UTC

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

2026-08-26 19:21:03 UTC

"All I know is that I know nothing"

2026-08-26 07:21:02 UTC

"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."

2026-08-25 20:29:24 UTC

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

2026-08-25 07:21:11 UTC

"Money and honor have no attraction for them; good men do not wish to be openly demanding payment for governing and so to get the name of hirelings, nor by secretly helping themselves out of the public revenues to get the name of thieves. And not being ambitious they do not care about honor. Wherefore necessity must be laid upon them, and they must be induced to serve from the fear of punishment. And this, as I imagine, is the reason why the forwardness to take office, instead of waiting to be compelled, has been deemed dishonorable. Now the worst part of the punishment is that he who refuses to rule is liable to be ruled by one who is worse than himself. And the fear of this, as I conceive, induces the good to take office, not because they would, but because they cannot help — not under the idea that they are going to have any benefit or enjoyment themselves, but as a necessity, and because they are not able to commit the task of ruling to any one who is better than themselves, or indeed as good. For there is reason to think that if a city were composed entirely of good men, then to avoid office would be as much an object of contention as to obtain office is at present…"

2026-08-24 07:21:02 UTC

"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."

2026-08-23 19:21:03 UTC

"My friend...care for your psyche...know thyself, for once we know ourselves, we may learn how to care for ourselves"

2026-08-23 07:21:03 UTC

"I neither know nor think that I know"

2026-08-22 19:21:02 UTC

"God takes away the minds of poets, and uses them as his ministers, as he also uses diviners and holy prophets, in order that we who hear them may know them to be speaking not of themselves who utter these priceless words in a state of unconsciousness, but that God himself is the speaker, and that through them he is conversing with us."

2026-08-22 07:21:02 UTC

"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."

2026-08-21 19:21:02 UTC

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

2026-08-21 07:21:02 UTC

"Beware the barrenness of a busy life."

2026-08-20 07:21:03 UTC

"Do you feel no compunction, Socrates, at having followed a line of action which puts you in danger of the death penalty?' I might fairly reply to him, 'You are mistaken, my friend, if you think that a man who is worth anything ought to spend his time weighing up the prospects of life and death. He has only one thing to consider in performing any action--that is, whether he is acting rightly or wrongly, like a good man or a bad one."

2026-08-19 07:21:03 UTC

"How can you wonder your travels do you no good, when you carry yourself around with you?"

2026-08-18 19:21:02 UTC

"Be slow to fall into friendship, but when you are in, continue firm and constant."

2026-08-18 07:21:03 UTC

"And the same things look bent and straight when seen in water and out of it, and also both concave and convex, due to the sight's being mislead by the colors, and every sort of confusion of this kind is plainly in our soul. And, then, it is because they take advantage of this affection in our nature that shadow painting, and puppeteering, and many other tricks of the kind fall nothing short of wizardry."

2026-08-17 19:21:02 UTC

"I soon realized that poets do not compose their poems with knowledge, but by some inborn talent and by inspiration, like seers and prophets who also say many fine things without any understanding of what they say."

2026-08-17 07:21:03 UTC

"Living well and beautifully and justly are all one thing."

2026-08-16 19:21:04 UTC

"By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher ... and that is a good thing for any man."

2026-08-16 07:21:03 UTC

"Give me beauty in the inward soul; may the outward and the inward man be at one."

2026-08-15 19:21:03 UTC

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

2026-08-15 07:21:02 UTC

"I do believe that there are gods, and in a far higher sense than that in which any of my accusers believe in them."

2026-08-14 19:21:02 UTC

"I neither know nor think that I know"

2026-08-14 07:21:02 UTC

2026-08-13 19:21:02 UTC

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

2026-08-13 07:21:02 UTC

"Is there anyone to whom you entrust a greater number of serious matters than your wife? And is there anyone with whom you have fewer conversations?"

2026-08-12 19:21:04 UTC

"Understanding a question is half an answer."

2026-08-12 07:21:03 UTC

"May the inward and outward man be as one."

2026-08-11 19:21:02 UTC

"There is no greater evil one can suffer than to hate reasonable discourse."

2026-08-11 07:21:02 UTC

"To be is to do."

2026-08-10 19:21:02 UTC

"The misuse of language induces evil in the soul."

2026-08-10 07:21:03 UTC

"True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us."

2026-08-08 19:21:03 UTC

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

2026-07-29 19:21:02 UTC

"Be nicer than necessary to everyone you meet. Everyone is fighting some kind of battle."

2026-07-28 19:21:03 UTC

"Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior."

2026-07-28 07:21:03 UTC

"The great honor in the world is to be what we pretend to be."

2026-07-27 19:21:02 UTC

"Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior."

2026-07-27 07:21:02 UTC

"Children nowadays are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers."

2026-07-26 07:21:02 UTC

"How can you wonder your travels do you no good, when you carry yourself around with you?"

2026-07-25 19:21:03 UTC

"Give me beauty in the inward soul; may the outward and the inward man be at one."

2026-07-25 07:21:03 UTC

2026-07-24 19:21:03 UTC

"Is it true; is it kind, or is it necessary?"

2026-07-24 07:21:02 UTC

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

2026-07-23 19:21:05 UTC

"Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down."

2026-07-23 07:21:03 UTC

"An unconsidered life is not one worth living."

2026-07-22 19:21:03 UTC

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

2026-07-22 07:21:06 UTC

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

2026-07-21 19:21:05 UTC

2026-07-21 07:21:03 UTC

"Life contains but two tragedies. One is not to get your heart's desire; the other is to get it."

2026-07-20 19:21:03 UTC

"Through your rags I see your vanity."

2026-07-20 07:21:04 UTC

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

2026-07-19 19:21:03 UTC