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
Are you not ashamed of heaping up the greatest amount of money and honor and reputation, and caring so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul?
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of valuing wisdom and truth over material wealth and social status.
In this quote, Socrates questions the priorities of individuals who focus on accumulating wealth, honor, and reputation while neglecting the cultivation of wisdom, truth, and the development of the soul. He challenges us to reflect on what truly matters in life, suggesting that personal growth and moral integrity are far more valuable than superficial achievements.
Themes
WisdomTruthWealthSoulValueGrowth
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the ethical implications of wealth accumulation.
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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Energy is an eternal delight, and he who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence.
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The highest exercise of imagination is not to devise what has no existence, but rather to perceive what really exists, though unseen by the outward eye-not creation, but insight.
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