For the poet is a light and winged and holy thing, and there is no invention in him until he has been inspired and is out of his senses, and the mind is no longer in him: when he has not attained to this state, he is powerless and is unable to utter his oracles.
SO
Author
Socrates
/socrates-quotes-and-sayings
135
Quotes
4
Works
Author Summary
About Socrates on QuoteMust
Socrates currently has 135 indexed quotes and 4 linked works on QuoteMust. This page is the canonical destination for that author archive.
Works
Books and titles linked to this author
Apology
Apology, Crito and Phaedo of Socrates.
Essential Thinkers - Socrates
Momentos
Quotes
All quote cards for Socrates
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.
How many things can I do without?
Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.
If a man would move the world he must first move himself.
Children today are tyrants. They contradict their parents gobble their food and tyrannize their teachers.
You think that upon the score of fore-knowledge and divining I am infinitely inferior to the swans. When they perceive approaching death they sing more merrily than before because of the joy they have in going to the God they serve.
The fewer our wants the nearer we resemble the gods.
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.
Our prayers should be for blessings in general for God knows best what is good for us.
Nobody is qualified to become a statesman who is entirely ignorant of the problems of wheat.
Know thyself.
As for me all I know is that I know nothing.
Four things belong to a judge: to hear courteously to answer wisely to consider soberly and to decide impartially.
He is not only idle who does nothing but he is idle who might be better employed.
I am not an Athenian nor a Greek but a citizen of the world.
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.
Living well and beautifully and justly are all one thing.