Socrates Quotes

5th-century BCE Greek philosopher469 BC–398 BC 11 quotes

Socrates was an ancient Greek philosopher from Classical Athens, perhaps the first Western moral philosopher, and a major inspiration for his student Plato. He wrote no texts and is known mainly through the accounts of later writers, particularly his students Plato and Xenophon, whose dialogues gave rise to the Socratic dialogue genre.

Contradictory accounts make his philosophy nearly impossible to reconstruct, a difficulty known as the Socratic problem. He lends his name to the Socratic method, a way of questioning through short questions and answers, and to Socratic irony. In 399 BC he was accused of impiety and corrupting the youth, and after a trial that lasted a day he was sentenced to death. Plato's Apology, Crito and Phaedo are among the works quoted under his name in our library.
Most quoted works
  • Apology, Crito and Phaedo of Socrates. 14
  • Apology 6
  • Essential Thinkers - Socrates 5
5th-century BCE Greek philosopher

Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.

— Essential Thinkers - Socrates

5th-century BCE Greek philosopher

...[R]eal wisdom is the property of God, and... human wisdom has little or no value.

— Apology, Crito and Phaedo of Socrates.

5th-century BCE Greek philosopher

...[T]hese people... are my dangerous accusers because those who hear them suppose that anyone who inquires into such matters... theories about the heavens... and everything below the earth... must be an atheist.

— Apology, Crito and Phaedo of Socrates.

5th-century BCE Greek philosopher

It seems to me that whatever else is beautiful apart from absolute Beauty is beautiful because it partakes of that absolute Beauty, and for no other reason... [I]t is by Beauty that beautiful things are beautiful.

— Apology, Crito and Phaedo of Socrates.

5th-century BCE Greek philosopher

...[S]ome of the opinions which people entertain should be respected, and others should not.

— Apology, Crito and Phaedo of Socrates.

5th-century BCE Greek philosopher

I am convinced that I never wrong anyone intentionally...

— Apology, Crito and Phaedo of Socrates.

5th-century BCE Greek philosopher

Wealth does not bring about excellence, but excellence makes wealth and everything else good for men, both individually and collectively.

— Apology

5th-century BCE Greek philosopher

The only thing I know is that I know nothing, and i am no quite sure that i know that.

— Essential Thinkers - Socrates

5th-century BCE Greek philosopher

...[M]en are put in a sort of guard-post, from which one must not release one's self or run away...

— Apology, Crito and Phaedo of Socrates.

5th-century BCE Greek philosopher

...[T]he really important thing is not to live, but to live well... [a]nd to live well means the same thing as to live honourably or rightly...

— Apology, Crito and Phaedo of Socrates.