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
By means of beauty all beautiful things become beautiful.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Beauty transforms and enhances all that is beautiful.
This quote suggests that the concept of beauty is inherently transformative; it is by the presence of beauty itself that other things gain beauty. In a philosophical context, it reflects on how beauty is a fundamental quality that shapes our perceptions and experiences of the world, illustrating the interconnectedness of beauty in various forms and aspects of life.
Themes
BeautyTransformationPerceptionPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a presentation on art, one might quote this to emphasize how beauty enhances our understanding of artistic expression.
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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There are periods of history when the visions of madmen and dope fiends are a better guide to reality than the common-sense interpretation of data available to the so-called normal mind. This is one such period, if you haven't noticed already.
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Consider no one a stranger. Learn to feel that everybody is akin to you.
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Perfection of character is this: to live each day as if it were your last, without frenzy, without apathy, without pretence.
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