Socrates (pronounced /ˈsɑkrətiːz/; Greek: Σωκράτης, Sōkrátēs; c. 469 BC–399 BC) was a Classical Greek philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known only through the classical accounts of his students. Plato's dialogues are the most comprehensive accounts of Socrates to survive from antiquity. Through his portrayal in Plato's dialogues, Socrates has become renowned for his contribution to the field of ethics, and it is this Platonic Socrates who also lends his name to the concepts of Socratic irony and the Socratic method, or elenchus. The latter remains a commonly used tool in a wide range of discussions, and is a type of pedagogy in which a series of questions are asked not only to draw individual answers, but to encourage fundamental insight into the issue at hand. It is Plato's Socrates that also made important and lasting contributions to the fields of epistemology and logic, and the influence of his ideas and approach remains strong in providing a foundation for much western philosophy that followed. As one recent commentator has put it, Plato, the idealist, offers "an idol, a master figure, for philosophy. A Saint, a prophet of the 'Sun-God', a teacher condemned for his teachings as a heretic."Yet, the 'real' Socrates, like many of the other Ancient philosophers, remains at best enigmatic and at worst unknown. Biography The "Socratic Problem" Forming an accurate picture of the historical Socrates and his philosophical viewpoints is problematic at best. This issue is known as the Socratic problem. Socrates did not write philosophical texts. The knowledge of the man, his life, and his philosophy is based on writings by his students and contemporaries. Foremost among them is Plato; however, works by Xenophon, Aristotle, and Aristophanes also provide important insights. The difficulty of finding the “real” Socrates arises because these works are often philosophical or dramatic texts rather than straightforward histories. Aside from Thucydides (who makes no mention of Socrates or philosophers in general), there is in fact no such thing as a straightforward history contemporary with Socrates that dealt with his own time and place. A corollary of this is that the sources which do mention Socrates don't necessarily claim to be historically accurate, and are often partisan (those who prosecuted and convicted Socrates have left no testament). Historians therefore face the challenge of reconciling the various texts that come from these men to create an accurate and consistent account of Socrates' life and work. The result of such an effort is not necessarily realistic, merely consistent. In general, Plato is viewed as the most reliable and informative source of information about Socrates' life and philosophy.At the same time, in some works Plato pushed his literary version of "Socrates" far beyond anything the historical Socrates was likely to have done or said. Parsing which Socrates—the "real" one, or Plato's own mouthpiece—Plato is using in any given dialogue can be a matter of much debate. However, it is also clear from other writings, and historical artifacts that Socrates was not simply a character, or invention, of Plato. The testimony of Xenophon and Aristotle, alongside some of Aristophanes' work within The Clouds, can be usefully engaged in fleshing out our perception of Socrates beyond Plato's work.

 

Quotes from Socrates

"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."

"All men's souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine."

"An honest man is always a child."

"As for me, all I know is that I know nothing."

"As to marriage or celibacy, let a man take which course he will, he will be sure to repent."

"Be as you wish to seem".

"Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant."

"Beauty is a short-lived tyranny."

"Beauty is the bait which with delight allures man to enlarge his kind."

"Beware the barrenness of a busy life."

"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."

"Death may be the greatest of all human blessings."

"Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for."

"False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil."

"From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate."

"He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy."

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

"I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing."

"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."

"I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance."

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

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

"I was really too honest a man to be a politician and live."

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

"If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart."

"It is not living that matters, but living rightly."

"Let him that would move the world first move himself."

"My advice to you is get married: if you find a good wife you'll be happy; if not, you'll become a philosopher."

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

"Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior."

"One who is injured ought not to return the injury, for on no account can it be right to do an injustice; and it is not right to return an injury, or to do evil to any man, however much we have suffered from him."

" Ordinary people seem not to realize that those who really apply themselves in the right way to philosophy are directly and of their own accord preparing themselves for dying and death."

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

"The end of life is to be like God, and the soul following God will be like Him."

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

"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing."

"The poets are only the interpreters of the Gods."

"The unexamined life is not worth living."

"The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear."

"To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge."

"True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing."

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

"Where there is reverence there is fear, but there is not reverence everywhere that there is fear, because fear presumably has a wider extension than reverence."

"Wisdom begins in wonder."

"Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live."