Quotes, Quotations and Sayings

Well I am certainly wiser than this man. It is only too likely that neither of us has any knowledge to boast of; but he thinks that he knows something which he does not know, whereas I am quite conscious of my ignorance. At any rate it seems that I am wiser than he is to this small extent, that I do not think that I know what I do not know.

Wisdom begins in wonder.

Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior.

Call no man unhappy until he is married.

The usual picture of Socrates is of an ugly little plebeian who inspired a handsome young nobleman to write long dialogues on large topics.

My advice to you is get married if you find a good wife youll be happy if not, youll become a philosopher.

Happiness is unrepentant pleasure.

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.

My advice to you is to get married: if you find a good wife you'll be happy: if not, you'll become a philosopher.

Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.

A multitude of books distracts the mind.

Pythagoras, Locke, Socrates -- but pages might be filled up, as vainly as before, with the sad usage of all sorts of sages, who in his life-time, each was deemed a bore! The loftiest minds outrun their tardy ages.

I do nothing but go about persuading you all, old and young alike, not to take thought for your persons or your properties, but and chiefly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul. I tell you that virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of man, public as well as private. This is my teaching, and if this is the doctrine which corrupts the youth, I am a mischievous person.

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

Ordinary people seem not to realize that those who really apply themselves in the right way to philosophy are directly and of their own accord preparing themselves for dying and death.

The hottest love has the coldest end.

The beginning of wisdom is a definition of terms.

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

And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul Plato

By all means marry. If you get a good wife you will become happy, and if you get a bad one you will become a philosopher.

An unexamined life is not worth living.

Enjoy yourself -- it's later than you think.

As an example of just how useless these philosophers are for any practice in life there is Socrates himself, the one and only wise man, according to the Delphic Oracle. Whenever he tried to do anything in public he had to break off amid general laughter. While he was philosophizing about clouds and ideas, measuring a flea's foot and marveling at a midge's humming, he learned nothing about the affairs of ordinary life.

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

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

We are in fact convinced that if we are ever to have pure knowledge of anything, we must get rid of the body and contemplate things by themselves with the soul by itself. It seems, to judge from the argument, that the wisdom which we desire and upon which we profess to have set our hearts will be attainable only when we are dead and not in our lifetime.

Thou shouldst eat to live not live to eat.

I pray Thee, O God, that I may be beautiful within.

Whom do I call educated? First, those who manage well the circumstances they encounter day by day. Next, those who are decent and honorable in their intercourse with all men, bearing easily and good naturedly what is offensive in others and being as agreeable and reasonable to their associates as is humanly possible to be... those who hold their pleasures always under control and are not ultimately overcome by their misfortunes... those who are not spoiled by their successes, who do not desert their true selves but hold their ground steadfastly as wise and sober -- minded men.

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.

Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.

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

Know yourself. The unexamined life is not worth living.

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

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.

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.

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

Envy is the ulcer of the soul.

My advice to you is get married: if you find a good wife you'll be happy; if not, you'll become a philosopher.

There is nothing more notable in Socrates than that he found time, when he was an old man, to learn music and dancing, and thought it time well spent.

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.

When desire, having rejected reason and overpowered judgment which leads to right, is set in the direction of the pleasure which beauty can inspire . . .

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

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

The life which is unexamined is not worth living.

The unexamined life is not worth living for man.

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

Thou shouldst eat to live; not live to eat.

The unexamined life is not worth living.