653 Quotes by Socrates

To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.

A free soul ought not to pursue any study slavishly, for nothing that is learned under compulsion stays with the mind.

By means of beauty all beautiful things become beautiful.

Whenever a number of individuals have a common name, we assume them to have also a corresponding idea or form.

It has been shown that to injure anyone is never just anywhere.

See one promontory, one mountain, one sea, one river and see all.

The soul then, as being immortal, and having been born again many times, and having seen all things that exist, whether in this world or in the world below, has knowledge of them all . . . all enquiry and all learning is but recollection.

The real artist, who knew what he was imitating, would be interested in realities and not in imitations; and would desire to leave as memorials of himself works many and fair; and, instead of being the author of encomiums, he would prefer to be the theme of them.

To use words and phrases in an easygoing manner without scrutinizing them too curiously is not in general a mark of ill-breeding. On the contrary, there is something low-bred in being too precise. But sometimes there is no help for it