Socrates

Quotes

• “He who is a philosopher or lover of learning, and is entirely pure at departing, is alone permitted to reach the gods. A...”
• “Suppose that there are two sorts of existences, one seen, and the other unseen. ...The seen is the changing, and the uns...”
• “If death had only been the end of all, the wicked would have had a good bargain in dying, for they would have been happi...”
• “In the course of my life I have often had intimations in dreams "that I should make music." The same dream came to me so...”
• “What is that the inherence of which, will render the body alive? [The soul.] ...Then whatever the soul possesses, to tha...”
• “Socrates and Christ speak to us everlastingly of mankind. ... It belongs to the great, to the greatest men to say how th...”
• “It may be said, indeed, that without bones and muscles and the other parts of the body I cannot execute my purposes. But...”
• “Socrates was the chief saint of the Stoics throughout their history; his attitude at the time of his trial, his refusal ...”
• “For after death, as they say, the genius of each individual, to whom he belonged in life, leads him to a certain place i...”
• “If any man could arrive at the exterior limit, or take the wings of a bird and fly upward, like a fish who puts his head...”
• “I am quite ready, Simmias and Cebes, that I ought to be grieved at death, if I were not persuaded that I am going to oth...”
• “Really, Ischomachus, I am disposed to ask: "Does teaching consist in putting questions?" Indeed, the secret of your syst...”
• “If anyone thinks that Socrates is proven to have lied about his daimon because the jury condemned him to death when he s...”
• “And this, Cebes, is the reason why the true lovers of knowledge are temperate and brave; and not for the reason that the...”
• “But when returning into herself she [the soul] reflects; then she passes into the realm of purity, and eternity, and imm...”
• “The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love ch...”
• “If I am to live longer, perhaps I must live out my old age, seeing and hearing less, understanding worse, coming to lear...”
• “Let us... be careful of admitting into our souls the notion that there is no truth or health or soundness in any argumen...”
• “Socrates: Shall we set down astronomy among the objects of study? Glaucon: I think so, to know something about the seaso...”
• “I would not have him sorrow at my hard lot, or say at the burial, Thus we lay out Socrates, or, Thus we follow him to th...”
• “The body is a source of endless trouble to us by reason of the mere requirement of food; and is also liable to diseases ...”
• “Seemeth it nothing to you, never to accuse, never to blame either God or Man? to wear ever the same countenance in going...”
• “They who have a care of their souls, and do not merely live in the fashions of the body, say farewell to all this; they ...”
• “Nothing is more uncommon than a very large or a very small man; and this applies generally to all extremes, whether of g...”
• “If there is anything beautiful other than absolute beauty, that can only be beautiful as far as it partakes of absolute ...”
• “And will he who is a true lover of wisdom, and is persuaded in like manner that only in the world below can he worthily ...”
• “Politics may also have lain behind the trial. Socrates's friendship with the opponents of the democracy, both in the rec...”
• “How singular is the thing called pleasure, and how curiously related to pain, which might be thought to be the opposite ...”
• “Whence come wars, and fighting, and factions? whence but from the body and the lusts of the body? For wars are occasione...”
• “There is a virtue, Simmias, which is named courage. Is not that a special attribute of the philosopher? ...Again, there ...”
• “Those also who are remarkable for having led holy lives are released from this earthly prison, and go to their pure home...”
• “This man here is so bizarre, his ways so unusual, that, search as you might, you'll never find anyone else, alive or dea...”
• “I do not mean to affirm that the description which I have given of the soul and her missions is exactly true-a man of se...”
• “It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satis...”
• “Socrates ... is the first philosopher of life [Lebensphilosoph], ... Thinking serves life, while among all previous phil...”
• “Will you not allow that I have as much of the spirit of prophecy in me as the swans? For they, when they perceive that t...”
• “The true disciple of philosophy is likely to be misunderstood by other men; they do not perceive that he is ever pursuin...”
• “Cf. Joseph Addison in The Spectator No. 574 Friday, July 30, 1714, p. 655: In short, content is equivalent to wealth, an...”
• “If Socrates died, then either he died when we was living, or when he was dead. But he couldn't have died when he was liv...”
• “Oh dear Pan and all the other gods of this place, grant that I may be beautiful inside. Let all my external possessions ...”
• “...do not courageous men endure death because they are afraid of yet greater evils? ...Then all but philosophers are cou...”
• “And so, from this day forth, we want all the more to let our thoughts revolve around and hover over Socrates and Christ ...”
• “It's important to remember that Thomas Huxley recognized Socrates as the first agnostic. Socrates very much believed in ...”
• “With the trial of Socrates, the history of Western political thinking begins. Socrates's death sparked off Plato's aston...”
• “If generation were in a straight line only, and there were no compensation or circle in nature, no turn or return into o...”
• “He who has studied Pythagoras and his speculations on the Monad, which, after having emanated the Duad retires into sile...”
• “It is a disgrace to grow old through sheer carelessness before seeing what manner of man you may become by developing yo...”
• “The soul is in the very likeness of the divine, and immortal, and intelligible, and uniform, and indissoluble, and uncha...”
• “Adapted from a passage in Schools of Hellas, the posthumously published dissertation of Kenneth John Freeman (1907). The...”
• “Not that this confusion signifies to them who never care to think about the matter at all, for they have the wit to be w...”