Quotes from Socrates

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

Be of good cheer about death, and know this of a truth, that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.

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

Some have courage in pleasures, and some in pains: some in desires, and some in fears, and some are cowards under the same conditions.

A system of morality that is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception that has nothing sound in it and nothing true.

Let he who would move the world, first complete an environmental impact assessment and a 90-day public comment period.

Only the extremely ignorant or the extremely intelligent can resist change.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is a habit.

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

Falling down is not a failure. Failure comes when you stay where you have fallen.

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

Man's life is like a drop of dew on a leaf.

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.

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

The unexamined life is not worth living.

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

Thou shouldst eat to live; not live to eat.

The best seasoning for food is hunger; for drink, thirst.

How many things there are which I do not want.

The hardest task needs the lightest hand or else its completion will not lead to freedom but to a tyranny much worse than the one it replaces.

Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm & constant.

Flattery is like friendship in show, but not in fruit.

Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.

Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for.