Famous Socrates quotes on life, knowledge and wisdom

One of the greatest and most famous Greek philosophers, Socrates is considered the first moral philosopher and one of the founders of Western philosophy. Socrates quotes on life are full of knowledge, wisdom and foresightedness.

Socrates wanted to establish an ethical system that would be based on human reason rather than the theological doctrine of the time. He strongly believed that the greatest leaders are the ones who possess knowledge, virtue and a complete understanding of themselves.

Socrates stated that an individual’s choice is motivated by the desire for happiness, but the right choices to achieve happiness can only be made when one truly knows himself.

Although admired during his time, many felt that Socrates threatened their way of life – and soon he was sentenced to death and forced to drink a mixture of poison hemlock. He did this without hesitation, as he did not fear death.

Socrates Quotes on Love

Love is an unique blend of trust, friendship, hardship, growth and the will to never give up. It's about people who would always stick with you, it's about people who are worth bearing the pain. It's more than words and emotions. Just like many of Socrates’s ideas, Socrates quotes on love can be an unveiling and may lead you to a different path altogether.  In the beginning of philosophy, love does not seem to be a Western philosophical agenda. However, the concept of love by Socrates might be a bit different, but it is definitely an eye-opener. Here are some of the best Socrates quotes on love.

Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.

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

The hottest love has the coldest end.

Those who are hardest to love need it the most.

The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.

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. 

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

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

Socrates Quotes on Death

The end of life. The one greatest loss and sadness is what everyone goes through at least once in their life. The acceptance and an encouragement that everything may not be the same, but it would be ok. Even if they are not that close to you, you can still remember them and remember the best time. It might be difficult to offer comfort with words, but offering condolences is a way of showing importance in life. Here are some of Socrates death quotes to help you ease the pain and accept that death is a part of life.

Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.

It is not difficult to avoid death, gentlemen of the jury; it is much more difficult to avoid wickedness, for it runs faster than death.

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.

No one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all blessings for a man, yet men fear it as if they knew it was the greatest of evils.

The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our separate ways, I to die, and you to live. Which of these two is better only God knows.

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

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.

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

The soul is pure when it leaves the body and drags nothing bodily with it, by virtue of having no willing association with the body in life but avoiding it.....Practicing philosophy in the right way is a training to die easily.

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 Quotes about Youth

Be it the modern-day era or era of the ancient Greek philosophers, adults always have something to complain about the behavior of the younger generation. Similarly, Socrates had its own notion about youth. Here are some of Socrates quotes about youth that may provide thought provoking insights. Some of his words might be an inspiration that can inspire you and motivate in life. Or, they may simply be words of advice or wisdom.

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

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

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.

If the whole world depends on today's youth, I can't see the world lasting another 100 years.

The greatest blessing granted to mankind come by way of madness, which is a divine gift.

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

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

By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.

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

Socrates Quotes about Life

Life is like a heartbeat, if it's linear you are dead and it's the up and down which makes you alive. A motivational push is all we look for. Driven by an ethical system, Socrates’s intention was to bring human reasoning in practice than the theological doctrine of the time. He tried his best and bought a different notion about life altogether. If you need to see things from a more realistic and practical perspective, here are some Socrates quotes about life. Lead the way to it, it might tell you exactly what you need to hear.

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

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

The unexamined life is not worth living.

Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions; but those who kindly reprove thy faults.

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.

Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued.

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

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

The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear. 

Socrates Quotes on Wisdom

Wisdom is the ability to use different abilities like knowledge and experience together. It's also like common sense, for many believe they have it yet they lack it. Funny? No, more like scary. Wisdom enables a person to speak when necessary and to shut mouth, when not. Being a philosopher, Socrates learned it the hard way and gained the Wisdom. Here are some Socrates wisdom quotes, imparting his wisdom. Let's hope we don't need to take the hard way but the highway.

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

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

There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.

When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.

The easiest and noblest way is not to be crushing others, but to be improving yourselves.

Wisdom begins in wonder. 

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

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

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

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.

Socrates Quotes on Democracy

Democracy - government by the people for the people. But why do we need an elected body to work for our wellbeing, why can't we do things for our own. Following the same, with several Ancient Greece’s great achievements, democracy was highly suspicious to Socrates. In the words of Plato, Socrates’s student, Socrates portrayed as a huge pessimist about the whole business of democracy. Understanding the notion of democracy by him, here are a few Socrates quotes on democracy.

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

Be as you wish to seem.

Be nicer than necessary to everyone you meet. Everyone is fighting some kind of battle.

I call myself a peaceful warrior because the battles we fight are on the inside.

The value of a man is measured in the number of those who stand beside him, not those who follow.

Nothing is so well learned as that which is discovered.

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

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

Contentment is natural wealth; luxury is artificial poverty.

Socrates Quotes on Education

Determining whether a nation is developed, developing or underdeveloped, literacy rate is one of the key factors. Likewise, education determines whether a person is open to changes, opinions and to look beyond and above superstitions. Education is what makes you help to understand things better, make you a better storyteller or to communicate your feelings in words and actions both. It's a card of all trade. Here are some Socrates quotes on education, which emphasize even further on the importance of Education.

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

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

Every action has its pleasure and its price.

I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.

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.

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

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

Nobody is qualified to become a statesman who is entirely ignorant of the problem of wheat.

Socrates Quotes on Knowledge

Knowledge is power, heard it before, obviously? But what's the rationale behind this famous quote. Is it the knowledge of stars, ability to solve mathematical problems or the knowledge about the universe and it's existence. Some will say all of it or maybe none of it. It's subjective, because it depends what knowledge you seek for. But one thing is sure, it's the knowledge that gives you an edge over hundreds or thousands of people. Make you stand apart from the crowd. So, here are some Socrates knowledge quotes to enlighten what it means to be trendsetter.

It is better to change an opinion than to persist in a wrong one.

Understanding a question is half an answer.

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

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

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

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.

Whatever authority I may have rests solely on knowing how little I know.

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

We are in fact convinced that if we are ever to have pure knowledge of anything, we must get rid of the body and contemplate things by themselves with the soul by itself. It seems, to judge from the argument, that the wisdom which we desire and upon which we profess to have set our hearts will be attainable only when we are dead and not in our lifetime.

Knowledge is our ultimate good.

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.

Whatever authority I may have rests solely on knowing how little I know.