A system of morality that is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception that has nothing sound in it and nothing true.
SocratesRead
The unexamined life is not worth living.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A life without self-reflection and examination lacks true value.
This quote by Socrates emphasizes the importance of introspection and self-awareness in living a meaningful life. It suggests that simply going through the motions of daily existence without questioning one's beliefs, values, and actions renders life superficial and unfulfilling. Socrates advocates for critical thinking as a vital component of a worthy existence.
Themes
Self-ReflectionIntrospectionMeaningPhilosophyExistence
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech on personal growth.
More from Socrates
All quotes βThe poets are only the interpreters of the gods.
SocratesRead
I am wiser than this man, for neither of us appears to know anything great and good; but he fancies he knows something, although he knows nothing; whereas I, as I do not know anything, so I do not fancy I do. In this trifling particular, then, I appear to be wiser than he, because I do not fancy I know what I do not know.
SocratesRead
When I was young, I believed that life might unfold in an orderly way, according to my hopes and expectations. But now I understand that the Way winds like a river, always changing, ever onward.. My journeys revealed that the Way itself creates the warrior; that every path leads to peace, every choice to wisdom. And that life has always been, and will always be, arising in Mystery.
SocratesRead
Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued." "It is not living that matters, but living rightly. The unexamined life is not worth living.
SocratesRead
The hour of departure has arrived and we go our ways; I to die, and you to live. Which is better? Only God knows.
SocratesRead
Similar quotes
Most of us are frightened of dying because we don't know what it meant to live.We don't know how to live,therefore we don't know how to die
Jiddu KrishnamurtiRead
There is always a very delicate interplay between individual actions and institutional conditions. But there is no such thing as institutional conditions without any individual actions and no such thing as individual action without institutional conditions. So there is always personal responsibility.
Cornel WestRead
Philosophers have argued for centuries about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, but materialists have known all along that it depends on whether they are jitterbugging or dancing cheek to cheek.
Tom RobbinsRead
The believer in magic and miracles reflects on how to impose a law on nature--: and, in brief, the religious cult is the outcome of this reflection.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
A comfortable, convenient life is not a real life - the more comfortable, the less alive. The most comfortable life is in the grave.
RajneeshRead
Contemporary man is blind to the fact that, with all his rationality and efficiency, he is possessed by "powers" that are beyond his control. His gods and demons have not disappeared at all; they have merely got new names. They keep him on the run with restlessness, vague apprehensions, psychological complications, an insatiable need for pills, alcohol, tobacco, food - and, above all, a large array of neuroses
Carl JungRead