The teachings of the great Greek philosopher Socrates are known
through the writings of his pupil Plato. Born in Athens to a sculptor
in 469 BC, his guiding rule was “Know thyself.” The Socratic Method by
which he taught was based on a series of carefully directed questions
that would make the other person find out the truth for himself.
As often happens throughout history, the honesty of Socrates
irritated the “powers that be” – at that time, the Thirty Tyrants who
ruled Athens after the death of Pericles; so he was condemned to death
by poisoning. In 399 BC Socrates died after drinking a cup of hemlock,
the method used for executions.
In the “Death of Socrates” Plato quotes his teacher:
“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, public as well as private. This is my teaching,
and if this is the doctrine which corrupts the youth, I am a mischievous
person.”
Here are a few more of Socrates’ quotations:
“Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions; but
those who kindly reprove thy faults.”
“Thou should eat to live; not live to eat.”
“The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world is to be
in reality what we would appear to be; and if we observe, we shall find
that all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the
practice of them.”
His wife’s name was Xanthippe. I think that this quotation reveals
his sense of humor:
J
“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 one of my favorite quotations:
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
