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
When you want wisdom and insight as badly as you want to breathe, it is then you shall have it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Desire for knowledge must be intense and genuine to truly gain wisdom.
This quote from Socrates emphasizes the necessity of a deep and passionate yearning for knowledge in order to attain true wisdom and insight. It suggests that just as breathing is essential for life, so too should the pursuit of understanding be a fundamental driving force in an individual's life.
Themes
WisdomInsightKnowledgeDesireLearning
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech to encourage students to pursue their studies.
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
Similar quotes
I'm proof against that word failure. I've seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.
George EliotRead
Dripping water hollows out a stone
OvidRead
It's not necessary to tell all you know. It's not ladylike -- in the second place, folks don't like to have someone around knowin' more than they do. It aggravates them. Your not gonna change any of them by talkin' right, they've got to want to learn themselves, and when they don't want to learn there's nothing you can do but keep your mouth shut or talk their language.
Harper LeeRead
Ideas don't desert you; ideas aren't treasonous to you, but people can be.
Alan DershowitzRead
This is a fact: Strength in the pursuit of peace is no vice; isolation in the pursuit of security is no virtue.
George H. W. BushRead
Follow your passion, weβre often told. But how do you find your passion? Let me put it another way: what is it that breaks your heart about the world? Itβs there that you begin to find what moves you. If you want to find your passion, surrender to your heartbreak. Your heartbreak points towards a truer north β and itβs the difficult journey towards it that is, in the truest sense, no mere passing idyllic infatuation, but enduring, tempestuous passion.
Umair HaqueRead