Greek Philosopher Quotes

Know yourself – Socrates

Wisdom begins in wonder – Socrates

A happy life is one which is in accordance with its own nature – Zeno of Citium

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing – Socrates

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not – Epicurus

Man is the measure of all things – Protagoras

Happiness depends upon ourselves – Aristotle

Change is the only constant – Heraclitus

To find yourself, think for yourself – Socrates

The unexamined life is not worth living – Socrates

The mind is everything. What you think you become – Buddha (not Greek, but influenced Greek philosophy)

Virtue is harmony – Pythagoras

It is better to be hated for what you are than loved for what you are not – Andre Gide (not Greek, but inspired by Greek philosophy)

All that we are is the result of what we have thought – Buddha

The greatest wealth is to live content with little – Plato

An unexamined faith is not worth having – Socrates

The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts – Marcus Aurelius

We are what we repeatedly do – Aristotle

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself – Richard Feynman (not Greek, but influenced by Greek philosophy)

You cannot step twice into the same river – Heraclitus

The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know – Socrates

The key to happiness is not the pursuit of pleasure, but the avoidance of pain – Epicurus

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself – Franklin D. Roosevelt (not Greek, but inspired by Greek philosophy)

Happiness is the highest good – Aristotle

Time is a flat circle – Friedrich Nietzsche (not Greek, but influenced by Greek philosophy)

Without labor, nothing prospers – Sophocles

The only way to do great work is to love what you do – Steve Jobs (not Greek, but inspired by Greek philosophy)

Crito, I owe a cock to Asclepius; will you remember to pay the debt? – Socrates’ last words

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet – Aristotle

Of all the things which wisdom provides to make us entirely happy, much the greatest is the possession of friendship – Epicurus

To be able to ask a question clearly is two-thirds of the way to getting the answer – John Ruskin (not Greek, but inspired by Socratic method)

The unexamined belief is not worth holding – Socrates

Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants – Epictetus

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new – Socrates (from Wayne’s World movie)

The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool – William Shakespeare (not Greek, but inspired by Greek philosophy)

To find peace, you have to be willing to lose your connection with the people, places, and things that create all the noise – Unknown (influenced by Stoic philosophy)

Give me beauty in the inward soul; may the outward and the inward man be at one – Socrates

The only constant in life is change – Heraclitus

It is possible to feel free even in chains – Epictetus

What you seek is seeking you – Rumi (not Greek, but influenced by Greek philosophy)

It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied – John Stuart Mill (not Greek, but influenced by Greek philosophy)

The best way to predict your future is to create it – Peter Drucker (not Greek, but inspired by Greek philosophy)

A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions – Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (not Greek, but inspired by Greek philosophy)

Endeavor to know yourself; for that is the wisest part of life – Heraclitus

The philosopher wishes to be a friend of wisdom, not to win a debate – Plato