Resurrection with Socrates

It has been more than 10 years since I last posted anything here. In fact I didn't think I would come back and post anything again at all. But life doesnt always go the way we intend it to, and here I am. I have been advised by a good friend to just post things - my writings, musings, etc. - here whether anyone reads them or not. Not someone used to listening to good advice, I decided to put my beliefs aside and for once listen to my well-wisher.

The following are a set of quotes attibuted to the Greek philosopher Socrates. I have given my own interpretations of each of his phrases of wisdom. Hope all you non existent readers enjoy it as much as I did.

Socrates’ Pearls of Wisdom for the layman

“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

― You know nothing. Sooner you realise that the better.

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

― If you stop using your brain, you become like a donkey.

“I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think”

― I am totally useless, but I can make people think otherwise.

“There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.”

― Either you know or you don’t know. There is no middle path.

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

― You are not the only one in deep shit.

“Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.”

― Curiosity doesn’t always kill the cat.

“Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people.”

― Caste system can be developed out of thin air, even by classifying what you think and talk about.

“To find yourself, think for yourself.”

― Never listen to anyone. No one knows anything for sure.

“Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.”

― I told you, I can seem more than I am.

“By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.”

― A wife will always give you something, but I’m not sure about the husband.

“He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.”

― Happy people don’t need more.

“Be slow to fall into friendship, but when you are in, continue firm and constant.”

― Be careful. Friends can be a pain in the neck.

“If you don't get what you want, you suffer; if you get what you don't want, you suffer; even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can't hold on to it forever. Your mind is your predicament. It wants to be free of change. Free of pain, free of the obligations of life and death. But change is law and no amount of pretending will alter that reality.”

― You are screwed for as long as you are alive. Just accept it and carry on with your life.

“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”

― Youngsters are always rude and don’t follow orders.

“Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.”

― Sometimes everyone craves for special attention – silent treatment is the best way to convey that.

“No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.”

― Laziness makes you as good as a cripple.

“When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.”

― If you dont have good arguments, just make baseless accusations and call names.

“Know thyself.”

― Mind your own business.

“The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.”

― Secret of happiness is being comfortable in poverty.

“Let him who would move the world first move himself.”

― To teach dancing, one needs to have the right moves.

“Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.”

― Life is a pain in the ass.

“Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.”

― Rich people have robbed us all, and we have no choice but to come to terms with it.

“Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for.”

― If you spend more time reading, you have less time to make real mistakes in life.

“The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our separate ways, I to die, and you to live. Which of these two is better only God knows.”

― Does suffering really end with death, or does it only get worse?

“Do not do to others what angers you if done to you by others.”

― Don’t harm others, they will take revenge.

“I examined the poets, and I look on them as people whose talent overawes both themselves and others, people who present themselves as wise men and are taken as such, when they are nothing of the sort.”

― If I could understand poetry, poets would not seem so awesome.

“I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world."

― Life is screwed no matter where you live.

“Every action has its pleasures and its price.”

― Think before you ink, look before you leap.

“Prefer knowledge to wealth, for the one is transitory, the other perpetual.”

― At least the rich and corrupt can’t steal your knowledge from you.

-----------------

(enough for today)