Socrates

“The misuse of language induces evil in the soul”

“I shall never cease from the practice and teaching of philosophy, exhorting anyone whom I meet after my manner, and convincing him, saying: O my friend, why do you who are a citizen of the great and mighty and wise city of Athens, care so much about laying up the greatest amount of money and honor and reputation, and so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul, which you never regard or heed at all? Are you not ashamed of this?”

“I only know that I know nothing”

“Be true to thine own self”

“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.”

“And a thing is not seen because it is visible, but conversely, visible because it is seen; nor is a thing led because it is in the state of being led, or carried because it is in the state of being carried, but the converse of this. And now I think, Euthyphro, that my meaning will be intelligible; and my meaning is, that any state of action or passion implies previous action or passion. It does not become because it is becoming, but it is in a state of becoming because it becomes; neither does it suffer because it is in a state of suffering, but it is in a state of suffering because it suffers. Do you not agree?”

“I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.”

“May the inward and outward man be as one.”

“Dar să adâncim puţin judecata ce e întemeiată pe nădejdea de a socoti moartea un bine. în adevăr, din două lucruri unul este a fi mort: sau este tot una cu a nu fi deloc, şi atunci cel mort n-are nici o simţire pentru nimic, sau este, după cum spun unii, numai o schimbare şi o trecere a sufletului dintr-un loc într-altul. Şi dacă în moarte nu-i nici o simţire, ci este aşa ca un somn adânc, când cineva doarme fără măcar să aibă un vis, atunci moartea se înfăţişează ca un minunat câştig. Căci eu socotesc că dacă şi-ar alege cineva o noapte în care a dormit aşa de bine că n-a fost tulburat nici măcar de un vis, dacă apoi ar compara acea noapte cu toate celelalte nopţi şi zile ale vieţii sale şi, cercetându-le întru sine, ar trebui să spună câte zile şi câte nopţi din viaţa lui a trăit mai liniştit şi mai plăcut decât în noaptea aceea, socotesc că nu numai un om de rând, dar însuşi Marele Rege ar găsi că acestea sunt prea puţine la număr faţă de celelalte zile şi nopţi.Dacă moartea este aşa ceva, eu o numesc câştig. Căci atunci întreaga veşnicie nu pare a fi altceva decât o singură noapte senină. Dacă însă moartea este ca şi o călătorie de aici în alt loc, dacă sunt adevărate cele ce se spun, că acela este locul de întâlnire al tuturor care au murit, atunci ce bine s-ar putea închipui mai mare decât moartea, o, judecătorii mei?”

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

“The highest realms of thought are impossible to reach without first attaining an understanding of compassion.”

“The hottest love has the coldest end.”

“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.”

“understanding a question is half an answer”

“One should never do wrong in return, nor mistreat any man, no matter how one has been mistreated by him.”

“The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.”

“All men's souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine.”

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

“To be is to do”

“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 a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.”

“Now the hour to part has come. I go to die, you go to live. Which of us goes to the better lot is known to no one, except the god.”

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

“Do you know that the spectator is the last of the rings which, as I am saying, receive the power of the original magnet from one another? The rhapsode like yourself and the actor are intermediate links, and the poet himself is the first of them. Through all these the God sways the souls of men in any direction which he pleases, and makes one man hang down from another. Thus there is a vast chain of dancers and masters and undermasters of choruses, who are suspended, as if from the stone, at the side of the rings which hang down from the Muse. And every poet has some Muse from whom he is suspended, and by whom he is said to be possessed, which is nearly the Ion 5same thing; for he is taken hold of. ”

“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...”

“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. ”

“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.”

“Be as you wish to seem.”

“Do not trouble about those who practice philosophy, whether they are good or bad; but examine the thing itself well and carefully. And if philosophy appears a bad thing to you, turn every man from it, not only your sons; but if it appears to you such as I think it to be, take courage, pursue it, and practice it, as the saying is, 'both you and your house.”

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

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

“To fear death, gentlemen, is no other than to think oneself wise when one is not, to think one knows what one does not know. No one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all blessings for a man, yet men fear it as if they knew that it is the greatest of evils.”

“Through your rags I see your vanity.”

“Living well and beautifully and justly are all one thing.”

“Are you not ashamed of heaping up the greatest amount of money and honour and reputation, and caring so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul? ”

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

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”

“The greatest way to live with honour in this world is to be what we pretend to be.”

“One who is injured ought not to return the injury, for on no account can it be right to do an injustice; and it is not right to return an injury, or to do evil to any man, however much we have suffered from him.”

“Hayat kısa, vazife ağır, fırsatlar geçicidir.”

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

“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...”

“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...”

“The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.”

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

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

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

“To move the world we must move ourselves.”