Great Throughts Treasury

"Knowledge is the food of the soul."

"Let us suppose that there are two sorts of existences – one seen, the other unseen… The seen is the changing, and the unseen is the unchanging."

"Philosophy begins in wonder."

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

"Nothing ever is, but all things are becoming… All things are the offspring of flux and motion."

"Remember, no human condition is ever permanent. Then you will not be overjoyed in good fortune nor too scornful in misfortune."

"The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being. [alternatively translated as The life which is unexamined is not worth living… or… An unexamined life is not worth living... or… The unexamined life is not the life for man... or… Life without enquiry is not worth living for a man.]"

"One who permits malice is not a person of wisdom."

"The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world is to be in reality what we would appear to be; all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice and experience of them."

"There is only one good, that is, knowledge; and only one evil, that is, ignorance."

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

"To do… injustice to another is a far greater evil for the doer of the injustice than it is for the victim."

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

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

"When the soul exists in herself, and is released in the body, and the body is released from the soul, what is this but death?"

"Wisdom begins in wonder. [Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.]"

"A good man cannot be harmed either in life or in death."

"A man should inure himself to voluntary labor, and not give up to indulgence and pleasure, as they beget no good constitution of body nor knowledge of mind."

"A husband is what's left of the lover after the nerve has been extracted."

"A multitude of books distracts the mind."

"A Life without criticism and status is not a worth living."

"A life without reflection accepted not worth living."

"A man who knows he knows nothing is smarter than a man who thinks he knows something but really knows nothing."

"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."

"Acquit me, or do not acquit me, but be sure that I shall not alter my way of life, no, not if I have to die for it many times."

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

"An unconsidered life is not one worth living."

"Absolute greatness will never be great and also small, but that greatness in us or in the concrete will never admit the small or admit of even being exceeded; instead of this, one of two things will happen?either the greater will fly and retire before the opposite, which is the less, or the advance of the less will cease to exist; but will not, if allowing or admitting smallness, be changed by that...nor can any other opposite which remains the same ever be or become its own opposite, but either passes away or perishes in the change."

"Again, truth should be highly valued; if, as we were saying, a lie is useless to the gods, and useful only as a medicine to men, then the use of such medicines should be restricted to physicians; private individuals have no business with them."

"An honest man is always a child."

"And a thing is not seen because it is visible, but"

"All I know is that I do not know anything."

"All that I know is nothing - I'm not even sure of that."

"An unexamined life is not worth living."

"And how is not this the most reprehensible ignorance, to think that one knows what one does not know? But I, O Athenians! in this, perhaps, differ from most men; and if I should say that I am in anything wiser than another, it would be in this, that not having a competent knowledge of the things in Hades, I also think that I have not such knowledge."

"And are not the temperate exactly in the same case? They are temperate because they are intemperate?which may seem to be a contradiction, but is nevertheless the sort of thing which happens with this foolish temperance. For there are pleasures which they must have, and are afraid of losing; and therefore they abstain from one class of pleasures because they are overcome by another: and whereas intemperance is defined as "being under the domination of pleasure," they overcome only because they are overcome by pleasure."

"And I rejoiced to think that I has found in Anaxagoras a teacher of the causes of existence such as I desired, and I imagined that he would tell me first whether the earth is flat or round; and then he would further explain that this position was the best, and I should be satisfied... and not want any other sort of cause. And I thought that I would then go and ask him about the sun and moon and stars, and he would explain to me their comparative swiftness, and their returnings and various states, and how their several affections, active and passive, were all for the best. For I could not imagine that when he spoke of mind as the disposer of them, he would give any other account of their being as they are, except that this was best; and I thought when he had explained to me in detail the cause of each and the cause of all, he would go on to explain to me what was best for me and what was best for all...I seized the books and read them as fast as I could in my eagerness to know the better and the worse."

"And I prophesy to you who are my murderers that immediately after my death punishment far heavier than you have inflicted on me will surely await you. Me you have killed because you wanted to escape the accuser, and not to give an account of your lives. But that will not be as you suppose: far otherwise. For I say that there will be more accusers of you than there are now; accusers whom hitherto I have restrained: and as they are younger they will be more severe with you, and you will be more offended at them. For if you think that by killing men you can avoid the accuser censoring your lives, you are mistaken; that is not a way of escape which is either possible or honorable; the easiest and the noblest way is not to be crushing others, but to be improving yourselves."

"And now that the hour of departure is appointed to me, this is the hope with which I depart, and not I only, but every man that believes that he has his mind purified."

"And in knowing that you know nothing, that makes you the smartest of all."

"And now we go, you to your lives, and I to death, and which of us goes to the better only God knows"

"And so they grow richer and richer, and the more they think of making a fortune the less they think of virtue; for when riches and virtue are placed together in the scales of the balance, the one always rises as the other falls."

"And now, O men who have condemned me, I would fain prophesy to you; for I am about to die, and in the hour of death men are gifted with prophetic power. And I prophesy to you, my executioners, that as soon as I am dead, vengeance shall fall upon you with a punishment far more painful than your killing of me. You have brought about my death because you wanted to escape the accuser, and not to give an account of your lives. But that will not be as you suppose: far otherwise. For I say that there will be more accusers of you than there are now; accusers whom hitherto I have restrained: and as they are younger they will be harsher to you, and will cause you more annoyance. If you think that by killing men you can prevent someone from censuring your evil lives, you are mistaken. This a way of escape is neither possible nor honorable; the easiest and the noblest way is not to stop the mouths of others, but by improving yourselves. This is the last message to you who voted for my condemnation."

"And the same things look bent and straight when seen in water and out of it, and also both concave and convex, due to the sights being misled by the colors, and every sort of confusion of this kind is plainly in our soul. And, then, it is because they take advantage of this affection in our nature that shadow painting, and puppeteering, and many other tricks of the kind fall nothing short of wizardry."

"And this, Cebes, is the reason why the true lovers of knowledge are temperate and brave; and not for the reason that the world gives. For not in that way does the soul of a philosopher reason... Never fear, Simmias and Cebes, that a soul which has been thus nurtured and has had these pursuits, will at her departure from the body be scattered and blown away by the winds and be nowhere and nothing."

"And thus one man makes a vortex all round and steadies the earth by the heaven; another gives the air as support for the earth, which is sort of a broad trough. Any power which in disposing them as they are disposes them for the best never enters into their minds, not do they imagine that there is any superhuman strength in that; they rather expect to find another Atlas of the world who is stronger and more everlasting and more containing than the good is, and are clearly of the opinion that the obligatory and containing power of the good is as nothing; and yet this is the principle which I would fain learn if anyone would teach me. But as I have failed either to discover myself or to learn of anyone else, the nature of the best, I will exhibit to you, if you like, what I have found to be the second best mode of inquiring into the cause."

"And will he who is a true lover of wisdom, and is persuaded in like manner that only in the world below can he worthily enjoy her, still repine at death? Will he not depart with joy? Surely he will, my friend, if he be a true philosopher... And if this be true, he would be very absurd... if he were to fear death."

"And when you see a man who is repining at the approach of death, is not his reluctance a sufficient proof that he is not a lover of wisdom, but a lover of the body, and probably at the same time a lover of either money or power, or both?"

"And we must beg Homer and the other poets not to be angry if we strike out these and similar passages, not because they are unpoetical, or unattractive to the popular ear, but because the greater the poetical charm in them, the less are they meet for the ears of boys and men who are meant to be free, and who should fear slavery more than death."

"Are you not ashamed of caring so much for the making of money and for fame and prestige, when you neither think nor care about wisdom and truth and the improvement of your soul?"