102 Socrates Quotes on Life & Happiness (WISDOM)

Socrates – a name that echoes through the corridors of time, synonymous with wisdom, inquiry, and philosophy. As one of the founders of Western philosophy, Socrates’ thoughts continue to influence our understanding of the world and ourselves.

These quotes are not just profound aphorisms; they are the distillations of a mind dedicated to questioning, understanding, and exploring the depths of human wisdom. They encapsulate Socrates’ views on knowledge, ethics, self-awareness, and the pursuit of truth.

Whether you’re a budding philosopher, a seeker of wisdom, or simply a reader with a penchant for thought-provoking insights, these quotes will stimulate your mind, challenge your perceptions, and inspire you to think deeply.

Top 13 Most Famous Socrates Quotes to Inspire You

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

The unexamined life is not worth living.

Falling down is not a failure. Failure comes when you stay where you have fallen.

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

Nothing is so well learned as that which is discovered.

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

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

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

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

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.

There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance. — There is only one good, **knowledge**, and one evil, ignorance.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is a habit. — We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is a **habit**.

89 Best Socrates Quotes on Love, Happiness, and Change

No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.”
Socrates

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new. — The secret of **change** is to **focus** all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.

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

Life contains but two tragedies. One is not to get your heart’s desire; the other is to get it.

Those who are hardest to love need it the most. — Those who are hardest to **love** need it the most.

The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less. — The secret of **happiness**, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.

True perfection is a bold quest to seek. Only the willing and true of heart will seek the betterment of many.

The easiest and noblest way is not to be crushing others, but to be improving yourselves.

If you want to be wrong then follow the masses.

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.”
Socrates

Be slow to fall into friendship, but when you are in, continue firm and constant. — Be slow to fall into **friendship**, but when you are in, continue firm and constant.

Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.

From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.

He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature. — He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the **wealth** of **nature**.

If a man is proud of his wealth, he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it. — If a man is proud of his **wealth**, he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it.

To move the world, we must first move ourselves.

The shortest and surest way to live with honour in the world, is to be in reality what we would appear to be; and if we observe, we shall find, that all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice of them.”
Socrates

When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. — We can easily **forgive** a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.

Smart people learn from everything and everyone. Average people from their experiences. Stupid people already have all the answers.

Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty. — **Contentment** is natural wealth, **luxury** is artificial poverty.

To fear death, gentlemen, is no other than to think oneself wise when one is not, to think one knows what one does not know. No one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all blessings for a man, yet men fear it as if they knew that it is the greatest of evils.”
Socrates

Get not your friends by bare compliments, but by giving them sensible tokens of your love.

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

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

It is better to suffer an injustice than to commit one.

If a man comes to the door of poetry untouched by the madness of the Muses, believing that technique alone will make him a good poet, he and his sane compositions never reach perfection, but are utterly eclipsed by the performances of the inspired madman.”
Socrates

There is no possession more valuable than a good and faithful friend.

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

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

Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.

Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior.

No one can teach, if by teaching we mean the transmission of knowledge, in any mechanical fashion, from one person to another. The most that can be done is that one person who is more knowledgeable than another can, by asking a series of questions, stimulate the other to think, and so cause him to learn for himself.”
Socrates

I know that I am intelligent because I know that I know nothing.

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

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.

My friend… care for your psyche… know thyself, for once we know ourselves, we may learn how to care for ourselves.

Regard your good name as the richest jewel you can possibly be possessed of – for credit is like fire; when once you have kindled it you may easily preserve it, but if you once extinguish it, you will find it an arduous task to rekindle it again. The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.”
Socrates

Life is full of questions. Idiots are full of answers.

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

Every action has its pleasures and its price. — Every **action** has its pleasures and its price.

I call myself a peaceful warrior because the battles we fight are on the inside. — I call myself a **peaceful** warrior because the battles we fight are on the inside.

To believe without evidence and demonstration is an act of ignorance and folly.

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

I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

The value of a man is measured in the number of those who stand beside him, not those who follow.

Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions; but those who kindly reprove thy faults.

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. — **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.

I pray Thee, O God, that I may be beautiful within.

The years wrinkle our skin, but lack of enthusiasm wrinkles our soul.

Remember, no human condition is ever permanent.

One should never do wrong in return, nor mistreat any man, no matter how one has been mistreated by him.

Call no man unhappy until he is married.

Lies are the greatest murder. They kill the Truth. — Lies are the greatest murder. They kill the **Truth**.

People learn more on their own rather than being force fed.

Do it because it's in your heart. Not because you want something in return. — Do it because it’s in your heart. Not because you want something in return.

I would rather die having spoken after my manner, than speak in your manner and live.

Why should we pay so much attention to what the majority thinks?

Understanding a question is half an answer.

Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.

The mind is everything; what you think you become.

The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.

The really important thing is not to live, but to live well. And to live well meant, along with more enjoyable things in life, to live according to your principles.

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

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.

An education obtained with money is worse than no education at all. — An **education** obtained with money is worse than no **education** at all.

How many are the things I can do without!

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

Nothing is to be preferred before justice.

In childhood be modest, in youth temperate, in adulthood just, and in old age prudent.

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

Trust not a woman when she weeps, for it is her nature to weep when she wants her will. — **Trust** not a woman when she weeps, for it is her **nature** to weep when she wants her will.

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

Thou shouldst eat to live; not live to eat. Also read: **Health Quotes**

Four things belong to a judge: to hear courteously, to answer wisely, to consider soberly, and to decide impartially. — Four things belong to a judge: to hear **courteously**, to answer wisely, to consider soberly, and to decide impartially.

People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid. — People demand freedom of speech to make up for the **freedom** of thought which they avoid.

We cannot live better than in seeking to become better.

Real wisdom is the property of God, and… human wisdom has little or no value.

In all of us, even in good men, there is a lawless wild-beast nature, which peers out in sleep. — In all of us, even in good men, there is a lawless wild-beast **nature**, which peers out in sleep.

There are two kinds of disease of the soul, vice and ignorance.

Silence is a profound melody, for those who can hear it above all the noise.

Only the extremely ignorant or the extremely intelligent can resist change. — Only the extremely ignorant or the extremely intelligent can resist **change**.

I am a fool, but I know I'm a fool and that makes me smarter than you. — I am a fool, but I know I’m a fool and that makes me smarter than you.

This is a universe that does not favor the timid.

Be of good cheer about death, and know this of a truth, that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death. — Be of good cheer about death, and know this of a **truth**, that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.

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

Socrates Short Biography

Born on 470 BC in Deme Alopece, Athens, Socrates was a Greek Philosopher whose teachings and way of life exerted a profound influence on ancient and modern philosophy.

His Socratic method of questioning laid the foundation for Western Logic and Philosophy. Often dubbed and credited the father of Western Philosophy, Socrates’ methods were the main source of Western ethical tradition of thought.

His philosophical pearls of wisdom and principles were accounted not by his own writings but by that of his students/admirers, particularly, Plato and Xenophon.

Back in the days, Socrates was a controversial figure in his native Athens. He was sentenced to death by hemlock poisoning in 399 B.C due to his Socratic method of questioning that ‘corrupted’ the minds of youth. Instead of fleeing to exile, he accepted his judgment and face his sentence.

Further reading:

Socrates – a man for our times – The Guardian
Socrates in love: how the ideas of this woman are at the root of Western philosophy – The Conversation
What Would Socrates Do? Business advice from Ancient Philosophers – Workflow Max
Socrates’ Divine Sign: Religion, Practice and Value in Socratic Philosophy – University of Notre Dame

Here are the best Socrates quotes so you can be wise to know thyself and understand that true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

(MUST READ)

**The Best of Socrates: The Founding Philosophies of Ethics, Virtues & Life**

Also read:

Top 13 Most Famous Socrates Quotes to Inspire You

89 Best Socrates Quotes on Love, Happiness, and Change

Socrates Short Biography

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