Socrates (c.469–399 BCE) was the Greek philosopher considered the father of western philosophy. Socrates’ most famous student, Plato, taught Aristotle, who later tutored Alexander the Great. By this progression, Greek philosophy, as first developed by Socrates, spread throughout the known world during Alexander’s conquests.
Socrates, like his father, was a prominent stonemason before fighting in the Peloponnesian War. His father’s bequest was adequate for Socrates to live moderately in Athens without working.
Socrates’ focus as a philosopher was on living a good and virtuous life. He inspired his followers to think for themselves instead of following society’s prescriptions and the accepted superstitions regarding the gods. According to Plato, Socrates declared, “an unexamined life is not worth living” (Apology, 38b.)
Socrates gained reputation as a questioner of everything and everyone. His method of teaching—celebrated as the Socratic Method—entailed not conveying knowledge directly, but instead asking question after clarifying question until his students reached their own understanding by exposing and dispelling errors.
Socrates is a mystery, even amongst philosophers. He did not found a school or leave any writings. His reputation as one of history’s greatest philosophers was created by disciples such as Plato and Xenophon rather than through the efforts of Socrates himself. All known information about Socrates is second-hand and most of it vigorously disputed.
Socrates’ habit of crushing powerful figures in debate garnered him more enemies than followers. Socrates was convicted and sentenced to death for corrupting the Athenian youth by “denying the gods recognized by the state and introducing new divinities, and, secondly, of corrupting the young.” He died by drinking an executioner’s cup of poisonous hemlock, surrounded by his friends and disciples in his prison cell in Athens. Per Plato, “Such was the end of our friend, a man, I think, who was the wisest and justest, and the best man I have ever known” (Phaedo, pp. 118.)
Socrates’ influence was felt directly in the actions of his disciples as they formed their own analysis of his life, teachings, and death. They launched their own philosophical schools and wrote about their experiences with their teacher.
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The shortest and best way to live with honor in the world is to be in reality what we would appear to be.
—Socrates
Topics: Hypocrisy, World
Life contains but two tragedies. One is not to get your heart’s desire; the other is to get it.
—Socrates
Topics: Desire, Desires
Man, know thyself.
—Socrates
I am not an Athenian or a Greek, I am a citizen of the world.
—Socrates
Be of good hope in the face of death. Believe in this one truth for certain, that no evil can befall a good man either in life or death, and that his fate is not a matter of indifference to the gods.
—Socrates
The nearest way to glory is to strive to
be what you wish to be thought to be.
—Socrates
From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.
—Socrates
Topics: Desire
Beware the banality of a busy life.
—Socrates
Wisdom begins in wonder.
—Socrates
Topics: Wisdom
If I can assign names as well as pictures to objects, the right assignment of them we may call truth, and the wrong assignment of them falsehood.
—Socrates
Be of good cheer about death, and know of a certainty, that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.
—Socrates
I love to go and see all the things I am happy without.
—Socrates
Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.
—Socrates
If a man would move the world, he must first move himself.
—Socrates
I do nothing but go about persuading you all, old and young alike, not to take thought for your persons or your properties, but and chiefly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul. I tell you that virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money, and every other good of man, public as well as private. This is my teaching, and if this is the doctrine which corrupts the youth, I am a mischievous person.
—Socrates
The warrior is here, now.
—Socrates
The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavour to be what you desire to appear.
—Socrates
Topics: Reputation
If you’re finding that work, relationships, and life in general don’t make you feel energized and hopeful about the future, that’s a good indication that you’ve probably lost touch with your real self and could use some insight into the person you’ve become. The soul, like the body, accepts by practice whatever habit one wishes it to contact.
—Socrates
Those who want the fewest things are nearest to the gods.
—Socrates
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