Socrates
Classical Athenian philosopher, the figure whose life and death gave Western philosophy its founding myth — the gadfly of Athens, condemned to death in 399 BCE for 'corrupting the youth' and 'impiety,' who chose to drink hemlock rather than abandon the philosophical life. Born around 470 BCE, son of a stonemason and a midwife, Socrates served as a hoplite in the Peloponnesian War and then turned to the questioning of his fellow citizens in the Athenian agora — a practice that produced no writings of his own but that his student Plato preserved in the great early dialogues (Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Symposium, Meno, Theaetetus). Xenophon's Memorabilia and Aristophanes's Clouds offer alternative portraits. The Socratic method — relentless questioning that reveals the questioner does not know what he thought he knew — became the foundation of philosophical inquiry; the Socratic claim that 'the unexamined life is not worth living' became its motto. He died in 399 BCE in Athens, surrounded by his students.
quotes in library
Quotes by Socrates
101 quotes“No one knows whether death may not be the greatest good that can happen to a person.”
“Yet people fear it as if they knew it to be the greatest evil.”
“This is the most blameworthy ignorance — to think one knows what one does not know.”
“The hour of departure has arrived. We go our separate ways — I to die, you to live.”
“Let him that would move the world, first move himself.”
“The greatest blessing granted to mankind comes by way of madness, which is a divine gift.”
“Wisdom begins in wonder.”
“Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings.”
“So that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for.”
“Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior.”
“Smart people learn from everything and everyone, average people from their experiences, stupid people already have all the answers.”
“The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.”
“From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.”
“My belief is that to have no wants is divine.”
“True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.”
“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”
“True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.”
“Wisdom is the only thing whose value increases the more it is shared.”
“With love, all of philosophy.”
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