Books by Socrates

While wisdom is something to be accrued through experience and knowledge, ‘500 Quotes to Learn Wisdom from Classical Greek Philosophers’ offers a shortcut. Dipping into the minds of some of the most revered thinkers of Ancient Greece, this book is packed with insights, reflections, and observations sure to inspire and stimulate thought.A superb gift for anyone with an inquiring mind.Considered one of the founders of Western and Greek philosophy, Plato (243 BC – 347 BC) was born in Athens. Many of his works are still studied to this day. Born in Stagira, Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) had a different take on philosophy. The founder of the peripatetic school, his doctrines are based on asking ‘why?’, before drawing conclusions. A former slave, Epictetus (50 AD – C 135) went on to promote philosophy as a way of life, rather than a set of beliefs. Credited as one of the fathers of Western philosophy, Socrates (470 BC – 399 BC) brought morality and ethics into the philosophical spotlight. Heraclitus (535 BC – 475 BC) was one of the pioneers of logic and drew from a variety of philosophical ideas.

Socrates is an enigmatic figure, known chiefly through the accounts of others like Plato and Aristophanes. He was one of the most brilliant intellects ever, and devised what would later be called the Socratic method, which is a way of leading one's interlocutor to see his errors and contradictions through clever questioning before leading him to the truth. In ancient Athens, Socrates was widely known as a "gadfly", that is, an annoying insect buzzing at people's ears, because he kept questioning prejudices and contradictions; he was eventually tried and executed for "corrupting the minds of the youth". We have selected for you 100 of his best quotes, so you can decide whether this can be considered corruption, or an incredibly efficient way of learning to think for oneself.