Top 300 Socrates Quotes (2025 Update)
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101. “When you want success as badly as you want the air, then you will get it. There is no other secret of success.”

— Socrates

102. “To use words and phrases in an easygoing manner without scrutinizing them too curiously is not in general a mark of ill-breeding. On the contrary, there is something low-bred in being too precise. But sometimes there is no help for it.”

— Socrates

103. “Living or dead, to a good man there can come no evil.”

— Socrates

104. “Wisdom begins in wonder.”

— Socrates

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

— Socrates

106. “To be is to do.”

— Socrates

107. “I only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity for doing harm; then they might have an unlimited power for doing good.”

— Socrates

108. “True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing. And in knowing that you know nothing, that makes you the smartest of all.”

— Socrates

109. “All things in moderation, including moderation.”

— Socrates

110. “In every person there is a sun. Just let them shine.”

— Socrates

111. “Neither I nor any other man should, on trial or in way, contrive to avoid death at any cost.”

— Socrates

112. “One thing I know, that I know nothing. This is the source of my wisdom.”

— Socrates

113. “I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.”

— Socrates

114. “Pride divides the men, humility joins them.”

— Socrates

115. “All thinking begins with wondering.”

— Socrates

116. “Either I do not corrupt the young or, if I do, it is unwillingly.”

— Socrates

117. “I am a fool, but I know I’m a fool and that makes me smarter than you.”

— Socrates

118. “I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.”

— Socrates

119. “If you want to be wrong then follow the masses.”

— Socrates

120. “Talk in order that I may see you.”

— Socrates

121. “It is better to suffer an injustice than to commit one.”

— Socrates

122. “The beginning of wisdom is a definition of terms.”

— Socrates

123. “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.”

— Socrates

124. “Do it because it’s in your heart. Not because you want something in return. Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.”

— Socrates

125. “Athletics have become professionalized.”

— Socrates

126. “He is the richest who is content with the least.”

— Socrates

127. “I swear it upon Zeus an outstanding runner cannot be the equal of an average wrestler.”

— Socrates

128. “Let the questions be the curriculum.”

— Socrates

129. “An honest man is always a child.”

— Socrates

130. “Beloved Pan and all ye other gods who haunt this place, give me beauty in the inward soul; and may the outward and the inward man be one.”

— Socrates

131. “Sometimes you have to let go to see if there was anything worth holding onto.”

— Socrates

132. “To move the world we must move ourselves.”

— Socrates

133. “If what you want to tell me is neither True nor Good nor even Useful, why tell it to me at all.”

— Socrates

134. “Four things belong to a judge: to hear courteously, to answer wisely, to consider soberly, and to decide impartially.”

— Socrates

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

— Socrates

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

— Socrates

137. “By far the greatest and most admirable form of wisdom is that needed to plan and beautify cities and human communities.”

— Socrates

138. “Man must rise above the Earth – to the top of the atmosphere and beyond – for only thus will he fully understand the world in which he lives.”

— Socrates

139. “I am a citizen, not of Athens, or Greece, but of the world.”

— Socrates

140. “From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.”

— Socrates

141. “It is not living that matters, but living rightly.”

— Socrates

142. “What a lot of things I don’t need.”

— Socrates

143. “When our feet hurt, we hurt all over.”

— Socrates

144. “If the whole world depends on today’s youth, I can’t see the world lasting another 100 years.”

— Socrates

145. “Be slow to fall into friendship, but when you are in, continue firm and constant.”

— Socrates

146. “You never know a line is crooked unless you have a straight one to put next to it.”

— Socrates

147. “Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.”

— Socrates

148. “Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.”

— Socrates

149. “What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?”

— Socrates

150. “No man has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training.”

— Socrates