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
I prefer to be refuted than to refute, for it is a greater good for oneself to be freed from the greatest evil than to free another.
Interpretation
What this quote means
It is better to accept being proven wrong than to prove someone else wrong, as personal growth is more valuable.
Socrates emphasizes the importance of personal reflection and growth over the desire to win arguments. He suggests that being open to being refuted allows for self-improvement, which is ultimately a greater benefit than the act of proving someone else wrong, which may not lead to constructive outcomes.
Themes
WisdomGrowthTruthLearningSelf-Improvement
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate, I shared Socrates' perspective to encourage humility among participants.
More from Socrates
All quotes →The 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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When you hurry you're more apt to make mistakes. But you have to be quick. If you're not quick you can't get things done.
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Nobody has the right to shield any idea as so sacred it can’t be challenged. ... Almost all human progress is driven by people who stood up and said ‘I disagree’ with this idea that society at the time considered to be the most precious.’
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I get all my ideas in Switzerland near the Forka Pass. There is a little town called Gletch, and two thousand feet up above Gletch there is a smaller hamlet called Über Gletch. I go there on the fourth of August every summer to get my cuckoo clock fixed. While the cuckoo is in the hospital, I wander around and talk to the people in the streets. They are very strange people, and I get my ideas from them.
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