Socrates (470 – 399 BC) was a classical Greek philosopher. He was one of the founders of Western philosophy. His students were Plato and Xenophon.

1765. To find yourself, think for yourself.

1766. Fame is the perfume of heroic deeds.

1767. The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.

1768. Prefer knowledge to wealth, for the one is transitory, the other perpetual.

1769. Do not do to others what angers you if done to you by others.

1770. She soars on her own wings.

1771. The unexamined life is not worth living.

1772. Be true to thane own self.

1773. Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.

1703. No man has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training.

1704. There is but one evil, ignorance.

1705. I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.

1706. Those who want the fewest things are nearest to the gods.

1707. The Spirit is neither good nor bad; it runs where the wild heart leads. Wisdom begins in wonder.

1708. Some have courage in pleasures, and some in pains: some in desires, and some in fears, and some are cowards under the same conditions.

1709. There is no possession more valuable than a good and faithful friend.

1710. True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.

1648. In all of us, even in good men, there is a lawless wild-beast nature, which peers out in sleep.

1649. The wise man seeks death all his life, and for this reason death is not terrifying to him.

1650. To need nothing is divine, and the less a man needs the nearer does he approach to divinity.

1651. How can you call a man free when his pleasures rule over him?

1652. Nobody knows anything, but I, knowing nothing, am the smartest man in the world.

1653. I desire only to know the truth, and to live as well as I can. And, to the utmost of my power, I exhort all other men to do the same. I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly conflict.

1654. All men's souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine.

1556. As to marriage or celibacy, let a man take which course he will, he will be sure to repent.

1557. What a lot of things there are a man can do without.

1558. An honest man is always a child.

1559. One thing I am ready to fight for as long as I can, in word and act: that is, that we shall be better, braver and more active men if we believe it right to look for what we don't know than if we believe there is no point in looking because what we don't know we can never discover.

1560. If thou continuous to take delight in idle argumentation thou mayest be qualified to combat with the sophists, but will never know how to live with men.

1561. Living or dead, to a good man there can come no evil.

1562. May I consider the wise man rich, and may I have such wealth as only the self-restrained man can bear or endure.

1530. I will not yield to any man contrary to what is right, for fear of death, even if I should die at once for not yielding.

1531. Improve yourself by other men's writings thus attaining effortlessly what they acquired through great difficulty.

1532. “Neither I nor any other man should, on trial or in way, contrive to avoid death at any cost.

1533. Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.

1534. Pride divides the men, humility joins them.

1535. Man must rise above the Earth to the top of the atmosphere and beyond for only thus will he fully understand the world in which he lives.

1536. When you propose ridiculous things to believe, too many men will choose to believe nothing at all.

1537. Fear of women love more than hates the man.

1470. Do it because it's in your heart. Not because you want something in return. Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.

1471. A man should inure himself to voluntary labor, and not give up to indulgence and pleasure, as they beget neither good constitution of body nor knowledge of mind.

1472. This is self-knowledge for a man to know what he knows, and what he does not know.

1473. A good man cannot be harmed either in life or in death.

1475. For who is there but you? Who not only claim to be a good man and a gentleman, for many are this, and yet have not the power of making others good. Whereas you are not only good to yourself, but also you are the cause of goodness in others.

1476. The greatest of all mysteries is the man himself.

1441. The years wrinkle our skin, but lack of enthusiasm wrinkles our soul.

1442. Do not go through life like leaf blown from here to there believing whatever you are told.

1443. Children today are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers.

1444. If a man is proud of his wealth, he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it.

1445. The man who is truly wise knows that he knows very little.

1446. One should never do wrong in return, nor mistreat any man, no matter how one has been mistreated by him.

1447. When a woman is allowed to become a man's equal, she becomes his superior.

1448. A man can no more make a safe use of wealth without reason than he can of a horse without a bridle.

1421. The first key to greatness is to be in reality what we appear to be.

1422. The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world is to be in reality what we would appear to be, all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice and experience of them.

1423. False language, evil in itself, infects the soul with evil.

1424. The soul, like the body, accepts by practice whatever habit one wishes it to contact.

1425. I have not sought during my life to amass wealth and to adorn my body, but I have sought to adorn my soul with the jewels of wisdom, patience, and above all with a love of liberty.

1426. I am confident that there truly is such a thing as living again, that the living spring from the dead, and that the souls of the dead are in existence.

1427. Virtue is the beauty of the soul.

970. 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.

971. 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.

972. 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.

973. There are two kinds of disease of the soul, vice and ignorance.

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

963. The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

964. Remember what is unbecoming to do is also unbecoming to speak of.

965. Do not do to others what angers you if done to you by others.

966. Are you not ashamed of heaping up the greatest amount of money and honor and reputation, and caring so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul?

967. Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs; therefore avoid undue elation in prosperity, or undue depression in adversity.

968. The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.

969. Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.

920. Smart people learn from everything and everyone, average people from their experiences, stupid people already have all the answers.

921. In childhood be modest, in youth temperate, in adulthood just, and in old age prudent.”

922. The comic and the tragic lie inseparably close, like light and shadow.

923. The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.

924. Worthless people love only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.”

925. Life contains but two tragedies. One is not to get your heart’s desire; the other is to get it.

926. Remember, no human condition is ever permanent. Then you will not be overjoyed in good fortune nor too scornful in misfortune.”

779. He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.

780. Slanderers do not hurt me because they do not hit me.

781. One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing.

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

783. I was afraid that by observing objects with my eyes and trying to comprehend them with each of my other senses I might blind my soul altogether.

784. How many are the things I can do without!

785. The hottest love has the coldest end.

786. By all means marry. If you get a good wife you will become happy, and if you get a bad one you will become a philosopher.