Socrates Men Quotations

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.

Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

An honest man is always a child.

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.

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.

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.

It is a base thing for a man to wax old in careless self-neglect before he has lifted up his eyes and seen what manner of man he was made to be, in the full perfection of bodily strength and beauty. But these glories are withheld from him who is guilty of self-neglect, for they are not wont to blaze forth unbidden.

...in the acquisition of this blessing human nature can find no better helper than Love. I declare that it is the duty of every man to honour Love, and I honour and practice the mysteries of Love in an especial degree myself, and recommend the same to others, and I praise the power and valour of Love to the best of my ability both now and always.

It is possible that a man could live twice as long if he didn't spend the first half of his life acquiring habits that shortens the other half

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

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

May the outward and inward man be at one.

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

I do nothing but go about persuading you all, old and young alike, not to take thought for your persons or your properties, but and chiefly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul. I tell you that virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of man, public as well as private. This is my teaching, and if this is the doctrine which corrupts the youth, I am a mischievous person.

It is a disgrace to grow old through sheer carelessness before seeing what manner of man you may become by developing your bodily strength and beauty to their highest limit.

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

If a man comes to the door of poetry untouched by the madness of the Muses, believing that technique alone will make him a good poet, he and his sane compositions never reach perfection, but are utterly eclipsed by the performances of the inspired madman.

...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.

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

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.

No citizen has any right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training; it is part of his profession as a citizen to keep himself in good condition... [It is] a disgrace for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and the strength of which his body is capable.

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

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

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

Beloved Pan and all ye other gods who haunt this place, give me beauty in the inward soul; and may the outward and the inward man be one.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Pride divides the men, humility joins them.

The greatest of all mysteries is the man himself.

If I had engaged in politics, O men of Athens, I should have perished long ago, and done no good either to you or to myself.

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

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

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.

Do you suppose that I should have lived as long as I have if I had moved in the sphere of public life, and conducting myself in that sphere like an honorable man, had always upheld the cause of right, and conscientiously set this end above all other things? Not by a very long way, gentlemen; neither would any other man.

Fear of women love more than hate the man.

Creation is man's immortality and brings him nearest to the gods.

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

There is a doctrine whispered in secret that a man is a prisoner who has no right to open the door and run away; this is a great mystery which I do not quite understand.

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

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

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 yourself, but also the cause of goodness in others.

A man should inure himself to voluntary labor, and not give up to indulgence and pleasure, as they beget no good constitution of body nor knowledge of mind.

Since all of us desire to be happy, and since we evidently become so on account of our use—that is our good use—of other things, and since knowledge is what provides this goodness of use and also good fortune, every man must, as seems plausible, prepare himself by every means for this: to be as wise as possible. Right?

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.

I am quite ready to acknowledge . . . that I ought to be grieved at death, if I were not persuaded that I am going to other gods who are wise and good (of this I am as certain as I can be of any such matters), and to men departed who are better than those whom I leave behind. And therefore I do not grieve as I might have done, for I have good hope that there is yet something remaining for the dead.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

No man undertakes a trade he has not learned, even the meanest; yet everyone thinks himself sufficiently qualified for the hardest of all trades, that of government.

I call that man idle who might be better employed.

One cannot come closer to the gods than by bringing health to his Fellow Man.

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