Socrates Quotes

Smart people learn from everything and everyone, average people from their experiences, stupid people already have all the answers.

Smart people will never miss an opportunity to learn something. He knows he doesn't have all the answers all the time. So he doesn't miss the opportunity to learn it. The “average man” will learn through till and error. The stupid man has no room to learn. He's under the impression he's right. He has no reason to listen. No reason to learn.

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 is a philosopher with a high and spiritual bent of mind. He has given this quote keeping in mind the lasting spiritual benefits a person can obtain and not really the temporary material happiness. For succeeding in spirituality we should not have any attachments towards worldly things such as wife, money, etc. As we cannot classify anyone as good or bad objectively. In case he finds a good wife(as per his expectations), he will be happy in materialistic life. If not, it will be a chance for him to turn towards higher spiritual aspects. So in either case, there is a benefit to getting out of marriage.

From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.

This quote is specific about desire turning to hate, which is usually a covetous love or a desirous wanting, but a similar problem can occur when one desires things and then turns to theft or destruction. Other parallel examples can be found throughout the emotional range of a human, and most end poorly. Emotions are good, but they still need bounds.

True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.

Knowledge begins in inquiry, which implies initial ignorance of the subject matter. Recognizing this is crucial for any inquiry to begin at all. Socrates had it right. Remain humble and appreciate the fact that you don’t know everything. What you do have, and must strive to retain, is the desire and ability to continually learn, ask questions, and grow, both inwardly and outwardly. Thankfully, one’s search for knowledge has no end as there is always something new to learn, giving one’s life meaning and purpose. The choice, however, is yours to make.

Wisdom begins in wonder.

Wonder is the beginning of wisdom simply means that the curiosity we have in knowing and learning new things makes us question things that we already know and are generally acceptable. It is the awareness that makes us seek the truth and attain wisdom. The willingness to open one's mind is the beginning of wisdom or perhaps knowledge. For a teacher to put interest in his students he has to wonder them about the beauty of knowledge and learning.

The unexamined life is not worth living.

Through this statement, Socrates means that an unexamined human life is deprived of the meaning and purpose of existence. To become fully human means to use our highly developed faculty of thought to raise our existence above that of mere beasts. For if we don’t think, we are no more than animals, simply eating, sleeping, working, and procreating.

Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.

Socrates regards death as the life here after, this to him conceptually not of a person who values their life in terms of living physically like any other else here modernly, he takes this issue of not a burden to him in which the essential part of an individuals identity or consciousness continues to exist hereafter, so Socrates sees death as a blessing in disguise.

Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued.

Socrates, once said, “Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued.” This message directly relates to my theory that happiness is the driving force of life. Socrates believed that it is not survival that makes life valuable, but rather the happiness within your own survival.

Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.

This means beauty or power is tyranny as one has to struggle hard to preserve it. It is short-lived because as one grows, the outer beauty dwindles with wrinkling of the skin, aging of muscles, and sinking of bones. So beauty or power starts plummeting after a point of saturation.

No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death. He and his are not neglected by the gods.

Man has an evil half and good half. They excuse every evil they do because they simply claim it was their evil side and now they are acting for the good side or they use some other trick. He means evil can only happen to the evil side of his nature. A good man can die in peace, in the knowledge he didn’t hurt others in word or deed. The good man is really ideal and we should all strive to be good for the sake of goodness alone.

Be as you wish to seem.

Socrates believed most people don't act the way they truly are. Be that person you would want others to see you as. Be kind if you want to be seen as kind, or brave if you want to leave the impression that you are. Be whatever things you would like the whole of you to represent because it really is as simple as that once the "buts" have been removed.