Socrates was one of the greatest and most famous Greek philosophers. He was considered the first moral philosopher and one of the founders of Western philosophy.
Since he didn’t write down any of his work or teachings, he remains an enigmatic figure, known only from the writings of his students, particularly Plato and Xenophon.
Socrates believed that the greatest leaders are the ones who possess knowledge, virtue and a complete understanding of themselves. He also stated that an individual’s choice is motivated by the desire for happiness, but the right choices to achieve happiness can only be made when one truly knows himself.
While is was widely admired during his time he was also seen as a threat by many to their way of life, and ultimately sentence to death and forced to drink a mixture of poison hemlock.
The Socrates quotes below are full of wisdom and will help you make the most of your life.
Top 67 Socrates Quotes
1. “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” – Socrates
2. “False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.” – Socrates
3. “Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.” – Socrates
4. “Be as you wish to seem.” – Socrates
5. “The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.” – Socrates
6. “He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.” – Socrates
7. “He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy.” – Socrates
8. “Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.” – Socrates
9. “Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.” – Socrates
10. “Wisdom begins in wonder.” – Socrates
11. “The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.” – Socrates
12. “True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.” – Socrates
13. “It is not living that matters, but living rightly.” – Socrates
14. “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.” – Socrates
15. “What a lot of things there are a man can do without.” – Socrates
16. “I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.” – Socrates
17. “Slanderers do not hurt me because they do not hit me.” – Socrates
18. “Know thyself” – Socrates
19. “He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.” – Socrates
20. “They are not only idle who do nothing, but they are idle also who might be better employed.” – Socrates
21. “Nature has given us two ears, two eyes, and but one tongue – to the end that we should hear and see more than we speak.” – Socrates
22. “Nothing is to be preferred before justice.” – Socrates
23. “The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.” – Socrates
24. “Enjoy yourself — it’s later than you think.” – Socrates
25. “The fewer our wants the more we resemble the Gods.” – Socrates
26. “Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions, but those who kindly reprove thy faults.” – Socrates
27. “Remember, no human condition is ever permanent. Then you will not be overjoyed in good fortune nor too scornful in misfortune.” – Socrates
28. “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” – Socrates
29. “Every action has its pleasures and its price.” – Socrates
30. “Do not do to others what angers you if done to you by others.” – Socrates
31. “We cannot live better than in seeking to become better.” – Socrates
32. “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” – Socrates
33. “Smart people learn from everything and everyone, average people from their experiences, stupid people already have all the answers.” – Socrates
34. “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.” – Socrates
35. “No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.” – Socrates
36. “Silence is a profound melody, for those who can hear it above all the noise.” – Socrates
37. “If you don’t get what you want, you suffer; if you get what you don’t want, you suffer; even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can’t hold on to it forever. Your mind is your predicament. It wants to be free of change. Free of pain, free of the obligations of life and death. But change is law and no amount of pretending will alter that reality.” – Socrates
38. “There are two kinds of disease of the soul, vice and ignorance.” – Socrates
39. “Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.” – Socrates
40. “Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people.” – Socrates
41. “The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.” – Socrates
42. “When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.” – Socrates
43. “Falling down is not a failure. Failure comes when you stay where you have fallen.” – Socrates
44. “Prefer knowledge to wealth, for the one is transitory, the other perpetual.” – Socrates
45. “Be nicer than necessary to everyone you meet. Everyone is fighting some kind of battle.” – Socrates
46. “If you want to be a good saddler, saddle the worst horse; for if you can tame one, you can tame all.” – Socrates
47. “Be the kind of person that you want people to think you are.” – Socrates
48. “Understanding a question is half the answer.” – Socrates
49. “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.” – Socrates
50. “There is no possession more valuable than a good and faithful friend.” – Socrates
51. “The highest realms of thought are impossible to reach without first attaining an understanding of compassion.” – Socrates
52. “The easiest and noblest way is not to be crushing others, but to be improving yourselves.” – Socrates
53. “To move the world we must move ourselves.” – Socrates
54. “To find yourself, think for yourself.” – Socrates
55. “Those who are hardest to love, need it the most.” – Socrates
56. “I know you won’t believe me, but the highest form of human excellence is to question oneself and others.” – Socrates
57. “Life is full of questions. Idiots are full of answers.” – Socrates
58. “The mind is everything; what you think you become.” – Socrates
59. “It is better to change an opinion than to persist in a wrong one.” – Socrates
60. “I call myself a peaceful warrior because the battles we fight are on the inside.” – Socrates
61. “What screws us up the most in life is the picture in our heads of what it’s supposed to be.” – Socrates
62. “Everyone wants to tell you what to do and what’s good for you. They don’t want you to find your own answers, they want you to believe theirs.” – Socrates
63. “Remember, no human condition is ever permanent.” – Socrates
64. “The value of a man is measured in the number of those who stand beside him, not those who follow.” – Socrates
65. “My friend…care for your psyche…know thyself, for once we know ourselves, we may learn how to care for ourselves.” – Socrates
66. “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.” – Socrates
67. “There is only one good — knowledge; and only one evil — ignorance.” – Socrates
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