Socrates

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.

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.

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

No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death. He and his are not neglected by the gods.

Let him that would move the world first move himself.

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

Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.

He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy.

All men’s souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine.

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

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

Beauty is the bait which with delight allures man to enlarge his kind.

To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.

I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.

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.