Do you imagine that a city can continue to exist and not be turned upside down, if the legal judgments which are pronounced in it have no force but are nullified and destroyed by private persons?
Author
Socrates
/socrates-quotes-and-sayings
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
Quotes
All quote cards for Socrates
...[T]he really important thing is not to live, but to live well... [a]nd to live well means the same thing as to live honourably or rightly...
We cannot live better than in seeking to become better.
Is it true; is it kind, or is it necessary?
...[F]rom me you shall hear the whole truth; not, I can assure you, gentlemen, in flowery language... decked out with fine words and phrases; no, what you will hear will be a straightforward speech in the first words that occur to me, confident as I am in the justice of my cause; and I do not want any of you to expect anything different.
...I do not think that it is right for a man to appeal to the jury or to get himself acquitted by doing so; he ought to inform them of the facts and convince them by argument. The jury does not sit to dispense justice as a favour, but to decide where justice lies; and the oath which they have sworn is not to show favour at their own discretion, but to return a just and lawful verdict... Therefore you must not expect me, gentlemen, to behave towards you in a way which I consider neither reputable nor moral nor consistent with my religious duty.
I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.
My friend...care for your psyche...know thyself, for once we know ourselves, we may learn how to care for ourselves" -Socrates
The misuse of language induces evil in the soul