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 only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity for doing harm; then they might have an unlimited power for doing good.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that if people had the potential to cause great harm, they could also have the potential to do great good.
Socrates reflects on the dual nature of human capability, proposing that each person's potential for harm can mirror their potential for goodness. The idea implies that with greater power comes greater responsibility, and if people understood the extent of their capacity for negative actions, they might channel that awareness into positive influence and altruism instead.
Themes
CapacityGoodHarmOrdinaryPower
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about social responsibility, this quote could be used to motivate action for positive change.
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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