Bits of Wisdom #3 : Socrates
From the ancient till modern times, Greece has been the homeland for many important historical events and people who have marked the history of the country and have influenced the course of the world. People with talent, inspiration, and vision have set the grounds of modern civilization. Ancient thinkers words on life, success, courage and character hold true centuries later and can be just the pick-me-up we need, whatever the work day throws at us. The Ancient Greek philosophers used few words, 'quotes', to express pearls of wisdom that stand up today as guidelines for living wisely and compassionately.
SOCRATES
Philosopher of the 5th century BC
“One thing i know, that i know nothing. This is the source of my wisdom”.
“All men's souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine”.
“Know thyself”
“I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think”
“True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us”
“False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil”
“To find yourself, think for yourself”
“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”
“Call no man unhappy until he is married”
“Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live”
“Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior”
“Whom do I call educated? First, those who manage well the circumstances they encounter day by day. Next, those who are decent and honorable in their intercourse with all men, bearing easily and good naturedly what is offensive in others and being as agreeable and reasonable to their associates as is humanly possible to be... those who hold their pleasures always under control and are not ultimately overcome by their misfortunes... those who are not spoiled by their successes, who do not desert their true selves but hold their ground steadfastly as wise and sober -- minded men”
“Life contains but two tragedies. One is not to get your heart's desire; the other is to get it”
“From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate”
“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”
“Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant”
“Beauty is a short-lived tyranny”
“Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued”
“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers”
“No man undertakes a trade he has not learned, even the meanest; yet everyone thinks himself sufficiently qualified for the hardest of all trades, that of government”
“I was really too honest a man to be a politician and live”