Friday, August 29, 2014

Thoughts for our time: Socrates 470 BC-399 BC

The unexamined life is not worth living

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

From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate

True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing

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

By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you’ll be happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher

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

I cannot teach anybody. I can only make them think

Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle

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

Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel

He who is not contented with the good he has would not be contented with what he would like to have

If you don’t get what you want, you suffer; if you get what you don’t want, you suffer; even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can’t hold on to it forever. Your mind is your predicament. It wants to be free of change, free of pain, free of the obligations of life and death. But change is an unalterable law and no amount of pretending will alter the reality

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

Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty

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

Employ your time in improving yourself by others men’s writings so that you shall come easily by what others have laboured so hard for

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


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

No comments:

Post a Comment