One of the smartest people is named Socrates, and he was born in Athens, Greece, around 470 BC. He was a Greek philosopher who influenced the Western Logic as well as philosophy. Even though there is little to know about Socrates, we know for sure that he possessed a special personality and philosophy.
He believed that philosophy would help the society become better. Although there were a lot of people who admired him, there were also many who felt threatened by him and his work. So, when there were changes in Politics in Greece, he died by a hemlock poison in 399 BC.
However, his philosophy still lives, and here is a list of 25 of his most important quotes.
- “I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.”
- “The beginning of wisdom is a definition of terms. ”
- “I was afraid that by observing objects with my eyes and trying to comprehend them with each of my other senses I might blind my soul altogether.”
- “He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.”
- “They are not only idle who do nothing, but they are idle also who might be better employed.”
- “I only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity for doing harm; then they might have an unlimited power for doing good.”
- “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.”
- “In childhood be modest, in youth temperate, in adulthood just, and in old age prudent.”
- “Nature has given us two ears, two eyes, and but one tongue-to the end that we should hear and see more than we speak.”
- “Nothing is to be preferred before justice.”
- “Call no man unhappy until he is married.”
- “I am not an Athenian, nor a Greek, but a citizen of the world.”
- “The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.”
- “Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.”
- “Once made equal to man, a woman becomes his superior.”
- “The envious person grows lean with the fatness of their neighbor.”
- “False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.”
- “An education obtained with money is worse than no education at all.”
- “Life contains but two tragedies. One is not to get your heart’s desire; the other is to get it.”
- “Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions, but those who kindly reprove thy faults.”
- “Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.”
- “Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people.”
- “Prefer knowledge to wealth, for the one is transitory, the other perpetual.”
- “Thou shouldst eat to live; not live to eat.”
- “Be the kind of person that you want people to think you are.”