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
When you want wisdom and insight as badly as you want to breathe, it is then you shall have it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Desire for knowledge must be intense and genuine to truly gain wisdom.
This quote from Socrates emphasizes the necessity of a deep and passionate yearning for knowledge in order to attain true wisdom and insight. It suggests that just as breathing is essential for life, so too should the pursuit of understanding be a fundamental driving force in an individual's life.
Themes
WisdomInsightKnowledgeDesireLearning
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech to encourage students to pursue their studies.
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
The unexamined life is not worth living.
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
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The scepticism which men affect towards their higher inspirations is often not an honest doubt, but a guilty negligence, and is a sign of narrow mind and defective wisdom.
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I have no disciples, being myself an aspirant after discipleship and in search of a guru.
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Time waste differs from material waste in that there can be no salvage. The easiest of all wastes and the hardest to correct is the waste of time, because wasted time does not litter the floor like wasted material.
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