#socrates

Why should we place Christ at the top and summit of the human race? Was he kinder, more forgiving, more self-sacrificing than Buddha? Was he wiser, did he meet death with more perfect calmness, than Socrates? Was he more patient, more charitable, than Epictetus? Was he a greater philosopher, a deeper thinker, than Epicurus? In what respect was he the superior of Zoroaster? Was he gentler than Lao-tsze, more universal than Confucius? Were his ideas of human rights and duties superior to those of Zeno? Did he express grander truths than Cicero? Was his mind subtler than Spinoza’s? Was his brain equal to Kepler’s or Newton’s? Was he grander in death – a sublimer martyr than Bruno? Was he in intelligence, in the force and beauty of expression, in breadth and scope of thought, in wealth of illustration, in aptness of comparison, in knowledge of the human brain and heart, of all passions, hopes and fears, the equal of Shakespeare, the greatest of the human race? They found that Christ was a new name for an old biography; that he was not a life, but a legend; not a man, but a myth. ↗

— Robert G. Ingersoll

#bruno #buddha #cicero #kindness #patience

In Socrates' thought the two marks of individual self-consciousness appear; it is practical and it is social. ↗

— James M. Baldwin

#individual #marks #practical #self-consciousness #social

To be afraid of death is only another form of thinking that one is wise when one is not; it is to think that one knows what one does not know. No one knows with regard to death wheather it is not really the greatest blessing that can happen to man; but people dread it as though they were certain it is the greatest evil." -The Last Days of Socrates ↗

— Plato

#death

Athens is like a sluggish horse, and I am the gadfly trying to sting it into life. ↗

— Jostein Gaarder

#life

A Socrates in every classroom. ↗

— Alfred Whitney Griswold

#every #socrates

Do not trouble about those who practice philosophy, whether they are good or bad; but examine the thing itself well and carefully. And if philosophy appears a bad thing to you, turn every man from it, not only your sons; but if it appears to you such as I think it to be, take courage, pursue it, and practice it, as the saying is, 'both you and your house. ↗

— Socrates

#socrates #courage

As Socrates so philosophically put it, since we don't know what death is, it is illogical to fear it. ↗

— Tom Stoppard

#existentialism #socrates #death

Poetry, it is often said and loudly so, is life's true mirror. But a monkey looking into a work of literature looks in vain for Socrates. ↗

— Franz Grillparzer

#life #literature #looking #looks #loudly

Wealth does not bring about excellence, but excellence makes wealth and everything else good for men, both individually and collectively. ↗

— Socrates

#excellence #plato #socrates #trial #wealth

I will admit, like Socrates and Aristotle and Plato and some other philosophers, that there are instances where the death penalty would seem appropriate. ↗

— Jack Kevorkian

#appropriate #aristotle #death #death penalty #i