Socrates Quotes about Knowing Oneself

There are so many quotes of Socrates. His quotes on knowing oneself are famous since they are motivational and they open eye on self-awareness, self-examination/review, etc.

Socrates did not write any book about philosophy or teaching, but his students wrote from his teachings.  Commonly Plato and Xenophon are considered as writers of Socrates’ teachings.

Socrates Quotes about Knowing
Socrates Quotes about Knowing Oneself


Socrates wanted to make people to think, particularly oneself. Therefore, he taught about “knowing oneself”. Still his teaching to possess knowledge influences people, and make them think and knowing themselves first and then other knowledge. So, know first yourself then then know others. Therefore, the quotes about knowing are listed in this article.

There are fourteen quotes of Socrates to know yourself as follows (in alphabetical order):


  1. Be of good cheer about death, and know this of a truth, that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.
  2. By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.
  3. Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.
  4. He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.
  5. It is better to change an opinion than to persist in a wrong one.
  6. My friend…care for your psyche…know thyself, for once we know ourselves, we may learn how to care for ourselves.
  7. Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.
  8. The easiest and noblest way is not to be crushing others, but to be improving yourselves.
  9. The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
  10. The unexamined life is not worth living.
  11. There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.
  12. Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions; but those who kindly reprove thy faults.
  13. True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.
  14. When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.

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