One should never do wrong in return, nor mistreat any man, no matter how one has been mistreated by him.
— SocratesPlato, Crito 49c–d (translated by G.M.A. Grube)
Use itGS4: never retaliate wrong for wrong.
Thinker · 10 quotes
Socrates quotes for UPSC
10 sourced quotes by Socrates on education & knowledge, health & wellbeing, ethics & morality, integrity & honesty, character & virtue, with a use case for each in GS4, Essay and interviews.
✓ Attributions checked against Wikiquote's sourced list
False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.
— SocratesPhaedo 115e
Use itGS4: falsehood corrupts the speaker's character, not just the listener.
The being of all virtues, and chiefly of temperance, depends on the practice of them.
— SocratesMemorabilia I.3.10
Use itGS4: virtues exist only through practice, not knowledge.
There is no greater evil one can suffer than to hate reasonable discourse.
— SocratesPlato / Phaedo
Use itEssay on polarisation: hatred of reasoned debate is the greatest evil.
There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.
— SocratesVariant: The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance
Use itEssay intro on education: knowledge as good, ignorance as evil.
Anyone who holds a true opinion without understanding is like a blind man on the right road.
— SocratesPlato, Republic, 506c
Use itEssay: right opinions without understanding are fragile; value of conceptual clarity.
I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.
— SocratesNote: Compare doctrine of fidelity to Athenian law in Plato's Crito
Use itEssay on global citizenship and Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.
Those who want fewest things are nearest to the Gods.
— SocratesVariant: [H]e was nearest to the gods in that he had the fewest wants
Use itEssay on sustainable living: wanting less brings one closer to the divine.
Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.
— SocratesPlutarch Moralia, How the Young Man Should Study Poetry
Use itLife: eat to live, not live to eat.
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. But you cannot see that, if you are careless; for it will not come of its own accord.
— SocratesMemorabilia III.7.8
Use itLife/Fit India: neglecting physical fitness wastes potential.