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
Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that we should pray for general blessings, trusting that a higher power knows what is best for us.
Socrates emphasizes the importance of humility in our desires and prayers, advocating that instead of asking for specific things, we should seek general blessings. He asserts that a divine presence—God—understands our true needs better than we do ourselves, reminding us to trust in that greater wisdom rather than fixating on our limited perspectives.
Themes
PrayerBlessingsFaithTrustWisdom
In practice
Example use cases
In a spiritual gathering, to inspire participants to expand their prayers beyond personal desires.
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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Fire. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and the scholars. I will not forget thy word. Amen.
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I tell my children what I think myself: That religion is not necessarily convincing, but it is still interesting and not to be laughed at or denigrated.
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If it’s going to be a world with no time for sentiment, it’s not a world that I want to live in.
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...life is a gift bestowed without anyone asking for it; that the thinking person has a philosophical duty to examine both the nature of life and the conditions it comes with; and that if this person decides to renounce the gift no one asks for, it is the moral and human duty to act on the consequences of that decision.
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We need a coat with two pockets. In one pocket there is dust, and in the other pocket there is gold. We need a coat with two pockets to remind us who we are.
Parker J. PalmerRead