Socrates Quotes

All I know is that I know nothing.

Public Key

npub1s0cra5735s8ccw7pfvqtp4see7t7lkfr0gwrfhkhsfakuxkf5ahs83023h

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsg8up760g6gruv80q5kq9s6cvul9l0my3h58p5mmtcy7mwrty6wmcpz3mhxue69uhkummnw3ezummcw3ezuer9wckk8sqk

Publishing to

nostr.oxtr.dev

Author Public Key

npub1s0cra5735s8ccw7pfvqtp4see7t7lkfr0gwrfhkhsfakuxkf5ahs83023h

Show more details

Last Notes

2026-02-07 07:21:02 UTC

"To find yourself, think for yourself."

2026-02-06 19:21:03 UTC

"I know you won't believe me, but the highest form of Human Excellence is to question oneself and others."

2026-02-06 07:21:02 UTC

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

2026-02-05 19:21:02 UTC

"Through your rags I see your vanity."

2026-02-05 07:21:02 UTC

"He who is not contended with what he has would not be contended with what he would like to have."

2026-02-04 19:21:02 UTC

"He is rich who is content with the least; for contentment is the wealth of nature."

2026-02-04 07:21:02 UTC

"Beware the barrenness of a busy life."

2026-02-03 19:21:02 UTC

"Beloved Pan and all other gods, who haunt this place, give me beauty in the inward soul, and may the outward and the inner man be at one."

2026-02-03 07:21:02 UTC

"Is there anyone to whom you entrust a greater number of serious matters than your wife? And is there anyone with whom you have fewer conversations?"

2026-02-02 19:21:03 UTC

"Such as thy words are such will thine affections be esteemed and such as thine affections will be thy deeds and such as thy deeds will be thy life ..."

2026-02-02 07:21:02 UTC

"I neither know nor think that I know"

2026-02-01 19:21:02 UTC

"The great honor in the world is to be what we pretend to be."

2026-02-01 07:21:02 UTC

"I did not care for the things that most people care about– making money, having a comfortable home, high military or civil rank, and all the other activities, political appointments, secret societies, party organizations, which go on in our city . . . I set myself to do you– each one of you, individually and in private– what I hold to be the greatest possible service. I tried to persuade each one of you to concern himself less with what he has than with what he is, so as to render himself as excellent and as rational as possible."

2026-01-31 19:21:02 UTC

"Give me beauty in the inward soul; may the outward and the inward man be at one."

2026-01-31 07:21:02 UTC

"I do believe that there are gods, and in a far higher sense than that in which any of my accusers believe in them."

2026-01-30 19:21:02 UTC

"Those who are hardest to love need it the most."

2026-01-30 07:21:03 UTC

"Be of good cheer about death, and know this of a truth, that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death."

2026-01-29 19:21:03 UTC

"Nobody is qualified to become a statesman who is entirely ignorant of the problem of wheat."

2026-01-28 19:21:02 UTC

"Death may be the greatest of all human blessings."

2026-01-28 07:21:02 UTC

"If a man comes to the door of poetry untouched by the madness of the Muses, believing that technique alone will make him a good poet, he and his sane compositions never reach perfection, but are utterly eclipsed by the performances of the inspired madman."

2026-01-27 19:21:02 UTC

"To be is to do."

2026-01-27 07:21:02 UTC

"The misuse of language induces evil in the soul"

2026-01-26 19:21:02 UTC

"Envy is the ulcer of the soul."

2026-01-26 07:21:02 UTC

"Envy is the ulcer of the soul."

2026-01-24 07:21:02 UTC

"Do you feel no compunction, Socrates, at having followed a line of action which puts you in danger of the death penalty?' I might fairly reply to him, 'You are mistaken, my friend, if you think that a man who is worth anything ought to spend his time weighing up the prospects of life and death. He has only one thing to consider in performing any action--that is, whether he is acting rightly or wrongly, like a good man or a bad one."

2026-01-23 19:21:02 UTC

"Beauty is a short-lived tyranny."

2026-01-23 07:21:02 UTC

"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."

2026-01-22 19:21:02 UTC

"Man's greatest privilege is the discussion of virtue."

2026-01-22 07:21:02 UTC

"All I know is that I know nothing"

2026-01-21 19:21:02 UTC

"For the fear of death is indeed the pretense of wisdom, and not real wisdom, being a pretense of knowing the unknown; and no one know whether death, which men in their fear apprehend to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good. Is not this ignorance of a disgraceful sort, the ignorance which is the conceit that a man knows that he does not know? And in this respect only I believe myself to differ from men in general, and may perhaps claim to be wiser than they are: that whereas I know but little of the world below, I do not suppose that I know..."

2026-01-21 07:21:02 UTC

"In all of us, even in good men, there is a lawless wild-beast nature, which peers out in sleep."

2026-01-20 19:21:02 UTC

"Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior."

2026-01-20 07:21:02 UTC

"I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled [poets] to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean."

2026-01-19 19:21:02 UTC

"Human nature will not easily find a better helper than Eros"

2026-01-19 07:21:02 UTC

"God would seem to indicate to us and not allow us to doubt that these beautiful poems are not human or the work of man, but divine and the work of God; and that the poets are only the interpreters of the Gods..."

2026-01-18 19:21:02 UTC

"He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god."

2026-01-18 07:21:02 UTC

"It is better to change an opinion than to persist in a wrong one."

2026-01-17 19:21:02 UTC

"Do not do to others what angers you if done to you by others."

2026-01-17 07:21:02 UTC

"Every action has its pleasures and its price."

2026-01-16 19:21:02 UTC

"Beware the barrenness of a busy life."

2026-01-16 07:21:03 UTC

"Give me beauty in the inward soul; may the outward and the inward man be at one."

2026-01-15 19:21:03 UTC

"The mind is everything; what you think you become."

2026-01-15 07:21:03 UTC

"My plainness of speech makes them hate me, and what is their hatred but a proof that I am speaking the truth."

2026-01-14 19:21:02 UTC

"We approach truth only inasmuch as we depart from life. For what do we, who love truth, strive after in life? To free ourselves from the body, and from all the evil that is caused by the life of the body! If so, then how can we fail to be glad when death comes to us? The wise man seeks death all his life and therefore death is not terrible to him."

2026-01-14 07:21:03 UTC

"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."

2026-01-13 19:21:03 UTC

"How many things can I do without?"

2026-01-13 07:21:02 UTC

"Neither in war nor yet at law ought any man to use every way of escaping death. For often in battle there is no doubt that if a man will throw away his arms, and fall on his knees before his pursuers, he may escape death; and in other dangers there are other ways of escaping death, if a man is willing to say and do anything. The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness; for that runs faster than death."

2026-01-12 19:21:02 UTC

"Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers."

2026-01-12 07:21:02 UTC

"The really important thing is not to live, but to live well. And to live well meant, along with more enjoyable things in life, to live according to your principles."

2026-01-11 19:21:02 UTC

"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 them have the same misconceptions. Because the most skillful among them excel in their specialty, they look upon themselves as the wisest of men. In my eyes, this presumption completely tarnished their knowledge. As a result, putting myself in the place of the oracle and asking myself what I would prefer to be — what I was or what they were, to know what they have learned or to know that I know nothing — I replied to myself and to the god: I wish to remain who I am."

2026-01-11 07:21:03 UTC

"I thought that as I had failed in the contemplation of true existence, I ought to be careful that I did not lose the eye of my soul; as people may injure their bodily eye by observing and gazing on the sun during an eclipse, unless they take the precaution of looking at the image reflected in the water, or in some similar medium. ...I was afraid that my soul might be blinded altogether if I looked at things with my eyes or tried by the help of my senses to apprehend them. And I thought that I had better had recourse to ideas, and seek in them truth in existence. I dare to say that the simile is not perfect--for I am far from admitting that he who contemplates existence through the medium of ideas, sees them only "through a glass darkly," any more than he who sees them in their working and effects."

2026-01-10 19:21:02 UTC

"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..."

2026-01-10 07:21:02 UTC

2026-01-09 19:21:02 UTC

"If all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be content to take their own and depart."

2026-01-09 07:21:02 UTC

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

2026-01-08 19:21:02 UTC

"Such as thy words are such will thine affections be esteemed and such as thine affections will be thy deeds and such as thy deeds will be thy life ..."

2026-01-08 07:21:02 UTC

"How many things can I do without?"

2026-01-07 19:21:02 UTC

"Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down."

2026-01-07 07:21:02 UTC

2026-01-06 19:21:03 UTC

"I only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity for doing harm; then they might have an unlimited power for doing good."

2026-01-06 07:21:03 UTC

"Prefer knowledge to wealth, for the one is transitory, the other perpetual"

2026-01-05 19:21:02 UTC

"From the deepest desires often comes the deadliest hate."

2026-01-05 07:21:03 UTC

"How can you wonder your travels do you no good, when you carry yourself around with you?"

2026-01-04 19:21:02 UTC

"By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher ... and that is a good thing for any man."

2026-01-04 07:21:02 UTC

"An unconsidered life is not one worth living."

2026-01-03 19:21:02 UTC

2026-01-03 07:21:02 UTC

"The really important thing is not to live, but to live well. And to live well meant, along with more enjoyable things in life, to live according to your principles."

2026-01-02 19:21:03 UTC

"Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for."

2026-01-02 07:21:02 UTC

"The mind is everything; what you think you become."

2026-01-01 19:21:03 UTC

"As for me, all I know is that I know nothing, for when I don't know what justice is, I'll hardly know whether it is a kind of virtue or not, or whether a person who has it is happy or unhappy."

2026-01-01 07:21:02 UTC

"He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature."

2025-12-31 19:21:02 UTC

"True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us."

2025-12-31 07:21:03 UTC

"One who is injured ought not to return the injury, for on no account can it be right to do an injustice; and it is not right to return an injury, or to do evil to any man, however much we have suffered from him."

2025-12-30 19:21:02 UTC

"And a thing is not seen because it is visible, but; conversely, visible because it is seen; nor is a thing led because; it is in the state of being led, or carried because it is in the; state of being carried, but the converse of this. And now I think, Euthyphro, that my meaning will be intelligible; and my; meaning is, that any state of action or passion implies previous; action or passion. It does not become because it is becoming, but it is in a state of becoming because it becomes; neither; does it suffer because it is in a state of suffering, but it is in a; state of suffering because it suffers. Do you not agree?"

2025-12-30 07:21:02 UTC

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

2025-12-29 19:21:02 UTC

"All I know is that I know nothing."

2025-12-29 07:21:02 UTC

"If you don't get what you want, you suffer; if you get what you don't want, you suffer; even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can't hold on to it forever. Your mind is your predicament. It wants to be free of change. Free of pain, free of the obligations of life and death. But change is law and no amount of pretending will alter that reality."

2025-12-28 19:21:03 UTC

2025-12-28 07:21:03 UTC

2025-12-27 19:21:02 UTC

"The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new."

2025-12-27 07:21:02 UTC

"My plainness of speech makes them hate me, and what is their hatred but a proof that I am speaking the truth."

2025-12-26 19:21:02 UTC

"The hottest love has the coldest end."

2025-12-26 07:21:02 UTC

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

2025-12-25 19:21:03 UTC

"Understanding a question is half an answer."

2025-12-25 07:21:02 UTC

"May the inward and outward man be as one."

2025-12-24 19:21:02 UTC

"Do not trouble about those who practice philosophy, whether they are good or bad; but examine the thing itself well and carefully. And if philosophy appears a bad thing to you, turn every man from it, not only your sons; but if it appears to you such as I think it to be, take courage, pursue it, and practice it, as the saying is, 'both you and your house."

2025-12-24 07:21:02 UTC

"I am not an Athenian nor a Greek, but a citizen of the world."

2025-12-23 19:21:03 UTC

"One should never do wrong in return, nor mistreat any man, no matter how one has been mistreated by him."

2025-12-23 07:21:02 UTC

"Prefer knowledge to wealth, for the one is transitory, the other perpetual"

2025-12-22 19:21:03 UTC

"The answer I gave myself and the oracle was that it was to my advantage to be as I am."

2025-12-22 07:21:02 UTC

"To move the world we must move ourselves."

2025-12-21 19:21:02 UTC

"He who is not contended with what he has would not be contended with what he would like to have."

2025-12-21 07:21:02 UTC

"null"

2025-12-20 19:21:02 UTC

"He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature."

2025-12-20 07:21:02 UTC

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

2025-12-19 19:21:02 UTC

"I soon realized that poets do not compose their poems with knowledge, but by some inborn talent and by inspiration, like seers and prophets who also say many fine things without any understanding of what they say."

2025-12-08 07:21:04 UTC

"I honor and love you: but why do you who are citizens of the great and mighty nation care so much about laying up the greatest amount of money and honor And reputation, and so little amount wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul? Re you not ashamed of these?... I do nothing but go about persuading you all, not to take thought for your persons and your properties, but first and chiefly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul. I tell you that virtue is not given by more, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of man."

2025-12-05 07:21:02 UTC

2025-11-15 07:21:47 UTC

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

2025-11-11 19:21:48 UTC

"null"