110+ Socrates Quotes On Education, Success And Change

Socrates was a classical Greek philosopher who is widely considered to be one of the founders of Western philosophy. He was born in Athens in 469 BC and is renowned for his Socratic method of questioning which aimed to draw out ideas from his pupils. He was found guilty of corrupting the minds of Athenian youth and was sentenced to death by drinking hemlock in 399 BC. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Socrates on love, life, education.

Top 10 Socrates Quotes

1. The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
2. The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.
3. I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.
4. Life contains but two tragedies. One is not to get your heart's desire; the other is to get it.
5. The Secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.
6. When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.
7. True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.
8. There is no possession more valuable than a good and faithful friend.
9. I am a Citizen of the World, and my Nationality is Goodwill.
10. Wisdom begins in wonder.

Socrates Image Quotes

I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing. — Socrates

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

Wisdom begins in wonder. — Socrates

To find yourself, think for yourself. — Socrates

The unexamined life is not worth living. — Socrates

Silence is a profound melody, for those who can hear it above all the noise. — Socrates

Beware the barrenness of a busy life. — Socrates

I am not an Athenian, nor a Greek, but a citizen of the world. — Socrates

Marry or marry not, in any either case you'll regret it — Socrates

Sometimes you have to let go to see if there was anything worth holding onto. — Socrates

She soars on her own wings. — Socrates

Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty. — Socrates

Slanderers do not hurt me because they do not hit me. — Socrates

An honest man is always a child. — Socrates

The envious person grows lean with the fatness of their neighbor. — Socrates

Enjoy yourself -- it's later than you think. — Socrates

Better to do a little well, then a great deal badly. — Socrates

Socrates Short Quotes

• Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.
• In every person there is a sun. Just let them shine.
• To find yourself, think for yourself.
• Silence is a profound melody, for those who can hear it above all the noise.
• I am a fool, but I know I'm a fool and that makes me smarter than you.
• I am not an Athenian, nor a Greek, but a citizen of the world.
• I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.
• False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.
• Marry or marry not, in any either case you'll regret it
• I call myself a Peaceful Warrior... because the battles we fight are on the inside.

Socrates Quotes About Love

Get not your friends by bare compliments but by giving them sensible tokens of your love. — Socrates

I pray Thee, O God, that I may be beautiful within. — Socrates

Young people nowadays love luxury; they have bad manners and contempt for authority. They show disrespect for old people... contradict their parents, talk constantly in front of company, gobble their food and tyrannize their teachers. — Socrates

The hottest love has the coldest end. — Socrates

Worthless people love only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live. — Socrates

Before the birth of Love, many fearful things took place through the empire of necessity; but when this god was born, all things rose to men. — Socrates

The greatest flood has the soonest ebb; the sorest tempest the most sudden calm; the hottest love the coldest end; and from the deepest desire oftentimes ensues the deadliest hate. — Socrates

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

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. — Socrates

Men of Athens, I honor and love you; but I shall obey God rather than you, and while I have life and strength I shall never cease from the practice and teaching of philosophy. — Socrates

Socrates Quotes About Life

The unexamined life is not worth living. — Socrates

Beware the barrenness of a busy life. — Socrates

Sometimes you have to let go to see if there was anything worth holding onto. — Socrates

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

In childhood be modest, in youth temperate, in adulthood just, and in old age prudent. — Socrates

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

An unexamined life is a life of no account. — Socrates

The rest of the world lives to eat, while I eat to live. — Socrates

Be of good hope in the face of death. Believe in this one truth for certain, that no evil can befall a good man either in life or death, and that his fate is not a matter of indifference to the gods. — Socrates

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

Socrates Quotes About Change

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

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

Do not grieve over someone who changes all of the sudden. It might be that he has given up acting and returned to his true self. — Socrates

Let us reflect in this way, too, that there is good hope that death is a blessing, for it is one of two things: either the dead are nothing and have no perception of anything, or it is, as we are told, a change and a relocation for the soul from here to another place. — Socrates

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

Socrates Quotes About Death

To fear death is nothing other than to think oneself wise when one is not. For it is to think one knows what one does not know. No one knows whether death may not even turn out to be the greatest blessings of human beings. And yet people fear it as if they knew for certain it is the greatest evil. — Socrates

He who has lived as a true philosopher has reason to be of good cheer when he is about to die, and that after death he may hope to receive the greatest good in the other world. — Socrates

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. — 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. — Socrates

For this fear of death is indeed the pretense of wisdom, and not real wisdom, being the appearance of knowing the unknown; since no one knows whether death, which they in their fear apprehend to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good. — Socrates

You think that upon the score of fore-knowledge and divining I am infinitely inferior to the swans. When they perceive approaching death they sing more merrily than before, because of the joy they have in going to the God they serve. — Socrates

Nobody knows what death is, nor whether to man it is perchance the greatest of blessings, yet people fear it as if they surely knew it to be the worse of evils. — Socrates

The hour of departure has arrived and we go our ways; I to die, and you to live. Which is better? Only God knows. Socrates on life and death — Socrates

You are wrong, sir, if you think that a man who is any good at all should take into account the risk of life or death; he should look to this only in his actions, whether what he does is right or wrong, whether he is acting like a good or a bad man. — Socrates

To fear death, gentlemen, is no other than to think oneself wise when one is not, to think one knows what one does not know. — Socrates

Socrates Quotes About Knowledge

There is no difference between knowledge and temperance; for he who knows what is good and embraces it, who knows what is bad and avoids it, is learned and temperate. — Socrates

The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance. — Socrates

Only the knowledge that comes from inside is the real Knowledge — Socrates

To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge. For a man who claims to have knowledge, while actually knowing nothing, is less smarter than you, who claim to know nothing. — Socrates

True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing. — Socrates

There is only one good -- knowledge; and only one evil -- ignorance. — Socrates

One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing. — Socrates

True wisdom lies in one's confession about the limits of one's knowledge. — Socrates

I shall never fear or avoid things of which I do not know. — Socrates

To know, is to know that you know nothing. — Socrates

Socrates Quotes About Wisdom

When you want wisdom and insight as badly as you want to breathe, it is then you shall have it. — Socrates

The beginning of wisdom is a definition of terms. — Socrates

Wonder is the beginning of wisdom. — Socrates

The true Wisdom is in recognizing our own ignorance. — Socrates

To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom. — Socrates

By far the greatest and most admirable form of wisdom is that needed to plan and beautify cities and human communities. — Socrates

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. — Socrates

The Delphic Oracle said I was the wisest of all the Greeks. It is because that I alone, of all the Greeks, know that I know nothing. — Socrates

To live well and honorably and justly are the same thing. — Socrates

The tongue of a fool is the key of his counsel, which, in a wise man, wisdom hath in keeping. — Socrates

Socrates Quotes About Questioning

Let the questions be the curriculum. — Socrates

The partisan when he is engaged in a dispute, cares nothing about the rights of the question, but is anxious only to convince his hearers of his own assertions. — Socrates

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

Understanding a question is half an answer. — Socrates

There's no good answer to a question you didn't hear — Socrates

Socrates Quotes About Wealth

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

Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty. — Socrates

He is the richest who is content with the least. — Socrates

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

Contentment is natural wealth. — Socrates

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

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

He is rich who is content with the least; for contentment is the wealth of nature. — Socrates

Virtue does not come from wealth, but wealth, and every other good thing which men have comes from virtue. — Socrates

Wealth does not bring about excellence (aka areté), but excellence (aka areté) brings about wealth and all other public and private blessings for men. — Socrates

Socrates Quotes About People

What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them? — Socrates

I don't care what people say about me. I do care about my mistakes. — Socrates

If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart. — Socrates

Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live. — Socrates

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

Whenever, therefore, people are deceived and form opinions wide of the truth, it is clear that the error has slid into their minds through the medium of certain resemblances to that truth. — Socrates

One thing I know, that I know nothing. This is the source of my wisdom. — Socrates

People learn more on their own rather than being force fed. — Socrates

Be the kind of person that you want people to think you are. — Socrates

Socrates Famous Quotes And Sayings

I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing. — Socrates

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. — Socrates

Serenity, regularity, absence of vanity,Sincerity, simplicity, veracity, equanimity, Fixity, non-irritability, adaptability, Humility, tenacity, integrity, nobility, magnanimity, charity, generosity, purity. Practise daily these eighteen "ities" You will soon attain immortality. — Socrates

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

Wisdom begins in wonder. — Socrates

No one can teach, if by teaching we mean the transmission of knowledge, in any mechanical fashion, from one person to another. The most that can be done is that one person who is more knowledgeable than another can, by asking a series of questions, stimulate the other to think, and so cause him to learn for himself. — Socrates

The unexamined life is not worth living. — Socrates

Our lives are but specks of dust falling through the fingers of time. Like sands of the hourglass, so are the days of our lives. — Socrates

Silence is a profound melody, for those who can hear it above all the noise. — Socrates

Beware the barrenness of a busy life. — Socrates

I am not an Athenian, nor a Greek, but a citizen of the world. — Socrates

Marry or marry not, in any either case you'll regret it — Socrates

Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us. — Socrates

Sometimes you have to let go to see if there was anything worth holding onto. — Socrates

The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be. — Socrates

Be as you wish to seem. — Socrates

Well I am certainly wiser than this man. It is only too likely that neither of us has any knowledge to boast of; but he thinks that he knows something which he does not know, whereas I am quite conscious of my ignorance. At any rate it seems that I am wiser than he is to this small extent, that I do not think that I know what I do not know. — Socrates

I swear it upon Zeus an outstanding runner cannot be the equal of an average wrestler. — Socrates

The cure of many diseases remains unknown to the physicians of Hellos (Greece) because they do not study the whole person. — Socrates

She soars on her own wings. — Socrates

Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty. — Socrates

No citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training... what a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable. — Socrates

The only thing I know is that I know nothing — Socrates

Get married, in any case. If you happen to get a good mate, you will be happy; if a bad one, you will become philosophical, which is a fine thing in itself. — Socrates

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

Slanderers do not hurt me because they do not hit me. — Socrates

An honest man is always a child. — Socrates

The envious person grows lean with the fatness of their neighbor. — Socrates

If measure and symmetry are absent from any composition in any degree, ruin awaits both the ingredients and the composition... Measure and symmetry are beauty and virtue the world over. — Socrates

Enjoy yourself -- it's later than you think. — Socrates

Better to do a little well, then a great deal badly. — Socrates

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. — Socrates

I am a citizen, not of Athens, or Greece, but of the world. — Socrates

No man has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training — Socrates

Let him that would move the world, first move himself. — Socrates

The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they alone knew everything and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with them. As for girls, they are forward, immodest and unwomanly in speech, behaviour and dress. — Socrates

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

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

My friend...care for your psyche...know thyself, for once we know ourselves, we may learn how to care for ourselves — Socrates

There is no greater magnificence than to defeat oneself. That is the magnificence. — Socrates

We can do nothing without the body, let us always take care that it is in the best condition to sustain us. — Socrates

To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images. — Socrates

Beauty is a short-lived tyranny. — Socrates

I was really too honest a man to be a politician and live. — Socrates

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

Regard your good name as the richest jewel you can possibly be possessed of - for credit is like fire; when once you have kindled it you may easily preserve it, but if you once extinguish it, you will find it an arduous task to rekindle it again. The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear. — Socrates

Where there is reverence there is fear, but there is not reverence everywhere that there is fear, because fear presumably has a wider extension than reverence. — Socrates

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

I am very conscious that I am not wise at all. — Socrates

I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think. — Socrates

The nearest way to glory is to strive to be what you wish to be thought to be. — Socrates

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

And I say let a man be of good cheer about his soul. When the soul has been arrayed in her own proper jewels - temperance and justice, and courage, and nobility and truth - she is ready to go on her journey when the hour comes. — Socrates

If he who does not know kept silent, discord would cease. — Socrates

A multitude of books distracts the mind. — Socrates

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. — Socrates

Exercise till the mind feels delight in reposing from the fatigue. — Socrates

I am wiser than this man, for neither of us appears to know anything great and good; but he fancies he knows something, although he knows nothing; whereas I, as I do not know anything, so I do not fancy I do. In this trifling particular, then, I appear to be wiser than he, because I do not fancy I know what I do not know. — Socrates

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

The individual leads in order that those who are led can develop their potential as human beings and thereby prosper. — Socrates

Envy is the ulcer of the soul. — Socrates

Virtue is the beauty of the soul. — Socrates

One ought not to return injustice, nor do evil to anybody in the world, no matter what one may have suffered from them. — Socrates

In every sort of danger there are various ways of winning through, if one is ready to do and say anything whatever. — Socrates

From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate. — Socrates

Life Lessons by Socrates

1. Socrates taught that the key to a meaningful life is to pursue knowledge and wisdom through self-reflection and critical thinking.
2. He believed that it was important to question the status quo and to challenge conventional wisdom.
3. He also encouraged people to live an examined life, where they take the time to think deeply and reflect on their values and beliefs.