Socrates

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

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

I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.

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

The poets are only the interpreters of the Gods.

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.

The seven deadly sins: Want of money, bad health, bad temper, chastity, family ties, knowing that you know things, and believing in the Christian religion.

Only those who know the supremacy of the intellectual life can understand the grief of one who falls from that serene activity into the absorbing soul-wasting struggle with worldly annoyances.

To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust. It is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically.

Is life worth living? This is a question for an embryo not for a man.

Truth is the summit of being justice is the application of it to affairs.

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

How could youths better learn to live than by at once trying the experiment of living?

False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.

I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.

The public is a ferocious beast; one must either chain it or flee from it.

Time will bring to light whatever is hidden; it will cover up and conceal what is now shining in splendor.

I know no religion that destroys courtesy, civility, and kindness.

A man is usually more careful of his money than he is of his principles.

Burning logs can carry on quite a conversation! … Have you ever heard apple wood talking? It’s the most loquacious of all. You really can’t get a word in edgeways.

But the mother’s yearning, that completest type of the life in another life which is the essence of real human love, feels the presence of the cherished child even in the debased, degraded man.