Controversial Sayings

I examined the poets, and I look on them as people whose talent overawes both themselves and others, people who present themselves as wise men and are taken as such, when they are nothing of the sort.

From poets, I moved to artists. No one was more ignorant about the arts than I; no one was more convinced that artists possessed really beautiful secrets. However, I noticed that their condition was no better than that of the poets and that both of t…

Those who offer [wisdom] to all comers for money are known as sophists, prostitutors of wisdom.

I will obey the god rather than you, and as long as I draw breath and am able, I shall not cease to practice philosophy.

It is not difficult to avoid death. It is much more difficult to avoid wickedness, for it runs faster than death.

A man who really fights for justice must lead a private, not a public, life if he is to survive for even a short time.

Knowledge is the only virtue, because once a man knows good from evil, nothing on earth can compel him to act against that knowledge.

The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance.

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

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.

It is a disgrace to grow old through sheer carelessness before seeing what manner of man you may become by developing your bodily strength and beauty to their highest limit.

And do you think, you fool, that kisses of love are not venomous, because you perceive not the poison? Know that a beautiful person is a more dangerous animal than scorpions, because these cannot wound unless they touch us; but beauty strikes at a di…

Avoid it resolutely; it is not easy to control yourself once you meddle with that sort of thing.

If he who undeceives people concerning their own ignorance would make them well-pleased with him, he must deceive them.

He who is not a good servant will not be a good master.

The father habitually tries to resemble the child...

The teacher in such case fears and fawns upon the pupils, and the pupils pay no heed to the teacher or to their overseers either.

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

The State demands the strong wine of freedom, and unless her rulers give her a plentiful draught, punishes and insults them; equality and fraternity of governors and governed is the approved principle. Anarchy is the law, not of the State only, but o…

Those who render no service either by word or deed, who cannot help army or city or the people itself in time of need, ought to be stopped, even if they have riches in abundance, above all if they are insolent as well as inefficient.