SOCRATES

"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing."

"Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty."

"The unexamined life is not worth living."

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."

"An unconsidered life is not one worth living."

"Are you not ashamed of caring so much for the making of money and for fame and prestige, when you neither think nor care about wisdom and truth and the improvement of your soul?"

"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."

"Death may be the greatest of all human blessings."

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

"Beware the barrenness of a busy life."

"A man who really fights for justice must lead a private, not a public, life if he is to survive for even a short time."

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

"Everything is plainer when spoken than when unspoken."

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

"Every action has its pleasures and its price."

"From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate."

"Give me beauty in the inward soul; may the outward and the inward man be at one."

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

"Envy is the ulcer of the soul."

"I don't know why I did it, I don't know why I enjoyed it, and I don't know why I'll do it again."

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

"I do believe that there are gods, and in a far higher sense than that in which any of my accusers believe in them."

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

"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."

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

"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."

"Let him who would move the world first move himself."

"Is it true; is it kind, or is it necessary?"

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

"If you don't get what you want, you suffer; if you get what you don't want, you suffer; even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can't hold on to it forever."

"If you want to be a good saddler, saddle the worst horse; for if you can tame one, you can tame all."

"Intelligent individuals learn from every thing and every one; average people, from their experiences. The stupid already have all the answers."

"My plainness of speech makes them hate me, and what is their hatred but a proof that I am speaking the truth."

"Mankind is made of two kinds of people: wise people who know they're fools, and fools who think they are wise."

"Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior."

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

"Now the hour to part has come. I go to die, you go to live. Which of us goes to the better lot is known to no one, except the god."

"Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people."

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

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

"The answer I gave myself and the oracle was that it was to my advantage to be as I am."

"The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms."

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

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

"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."

"An unexamined life is not worth living."