Socrates Quotes

169 Socrates quotes by 131 unique authors

Socrates, in Plato, formulates ideas of order: the Iliad, like Shakespeare, knows that a violent disorder is a great order. — Harold Bloom
The Sophists' paradoxical talk pieces and their public debates were entertainment in 5th century Greece. And in that world, Socrates was an entertainer. — David Antin
Gardening is the handiest excuse for being a philosopher. Nobody guesses, nobody accuses, nobody knows, but there you are, Plato in the peonies, Socrates force-growing… — Ray Bradbury
Man represses the irrational passions of destructiveness, hate, envy, revenge; he worships power, money, the sovereign state, the nation; while he pays lip service to… — Erich Fromm
An unexamined idea, to paraphrase Socrates, is not worth having and a society whose ideas are never explored for possible error may eventually find its… — Mark Van Doren
Losing love is so rich a philosophical ordeal that it makes a hairdresser into a rival of Socrates. — Emile M. Cioran
White folks was in the caves while we [blacks] was building empires ... We built pyramids before Donald Trump ever knew what architecture was ...… — Al Sharpton
No one seriously doubts Socrates' maxim: The unexamined life isn't worth living. Self-assessment and attempts at self-improvement are essential aspects of "the good life." Yes,… — Robert Burton
And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul. — Plato
That man is wisest who, like Socrates, realizes that his wisdom is worthless — Plato
I really do not know, Socrates, how to express what I mean. For somehow or other our arguments, on whatever ground we rest them, seem… — Plato
I am a conservative. Quite possibly I am on the losing side; often I think so. Yet, out of a curious perversity I had rather… — Russell Kirk
Every bird which flies has the thread of the infinite in its claw. Germination includes the hatching of a meteor and the tap of a… — Victor Hugo
At all times it has not been the age, but individuals alone, who have worked for knowledge. It was the age which put Socrates to… — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
But now the giant heads of Plato and Socrates, each with an expression of penetrating wisdom carved on his white features, surveyed the river and… — J. G. Farrell
Death is the real inspiring genius or Musagetes of philosophy, and for this reason Socrates defined philosophy as thanatou mélétè (preparation for death; Plato, Phaedo,… — Luce Irigaray
Socrates had it wrong; it is not the unexamined but finally the uncommitted life that is not worth living. — William Sloane Coffin
I would have been completely brainwashed by this lopsided and racist view of the world if it weren't for my father. He was a deep… — Walter Mosley
Socrates demonstrated long ago, that the truly free individual is free only to the extent of his own self-mastery. — Steven Pressfield
Certain characteristics of the subject are clear. To begin with, we do not in this subject deal with particular things or particular properties: we deal… — Bertrand Russell
Philosophers have a long tradition of marrying stupid women, from Socrates on. They think it clever. — Simon Gray
To be a European is to try to negotiate morally, intellectually and existentially the opposing statements and praxis of the city of Socrates and the… — George Steiner
And although it might be best of all to be Socrates satisfied, having both happiness and depth, we would give up some happiness in order… — Robert Nozick
Socrates was the first to call philosophy down from the heavens and to place it in cities, and even to introduce it into homes and… — Marcus Tullius Cicero
'Wars, factions, and fighting,' said Socrates as he looked forward from his last hour, 'have no other origin than this same body and its lusts...… — Socrates

Who Wrote These Socrates Quotes

131 authors contributed a total of 169 Socrates Quotes, led by these top contributors: