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
What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?
Interpretation
What this quote means
Socrates questions the moral decline of youth and their behavior towards authority figures.
In this quote, Socrates expresses concern about the deteriorating values and behavior of young people in society. He perceives a troubling trend where youth show disrespect towards elders, disobedience towards parents, and a disregard for laws, which leads him to question the future implications of such moral decay and what it means for society as a whole.
Themes
YouthMoralsDisrespectAuthorityConcernSociety
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion on the behavior of young people at a community meeting.
More from Socrates
All quotes →The poets are only the interpreters of the gods.
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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.
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The unexamined life is not worth living.
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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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