dots-menu
×

Home  »  Dictionary of Quotations  »  Socrates

James Wood, comp. Dictionary of Quotations. 1899.

Socrates

Contentment is natural wealth.

“Did I not tell you that after thunder rain would be sure to come on?”To his friends when, after a volley of upbraidings, Xantippe threw a jugful of water at his head.

Fame is the perfume of noble deeds.

From the deepest desire oftentimes ensues the deadliest hate.

Happiness is unrepealed pleasure.

He is not only idle who does nothing, but he is idle who might be better employed.

If all the misfortunes of mankind were cast into a public stock in order to be equally distributed among the species, those who now think themselves the most unhappy would prefer the share they have already to that which would fall to them by such a division.

If an ass kicks me, shall I strike him again?

In childhood be modest, in youth temperate, in manhood just, and in old age prudent.

Nothing is to be preferred before justice.

Revenge barketh only at the stars, and spite spurns at that she cannot reach.

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

Slanderers do not hurt me, because they do not hit me.

The comic and the tragic lie close together, inseparable, like light and shadow.

The envious man waxeth lean with the fatness of his neighbours.

The fewer our wants, the nearer we resemble the gods.

The greatest flood hath the soonest ebb; the sorest tempest the most sudden calm; the hottest love the coldest end; and from the deepest desire oftentimes ensues the deadliest hate.

The hottest love has the coldest end.

The sorest tempest has the most sudden calm.

The wise man had rather be envied for providence than pitied for prodigality.

Whichever you do, you will regret it.To one who asked him whether he should marry or not.

Woman, once made equal to man, becometh his superior.

Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.