Moses Mendelssohn Quotes

I conceived 'All Is Song' as a modernised, loosely interpreted version of Socrates's life.

A Socrates in every classroom.

The usual picture of Socrates is of an ugly little plebeian who inspired a handsome young nobleman to write long dialogues on large topics.

Socrates, after all, could be an intensely annoying man, all the time questioning passers-by until they became exasperated.

The Sophists' paradoxical talk pieces and their public debates were entertainment in 5th century Greece. And in that world, Socrates was an entertainer.

In general, I agree with Socrates that what democracies badly need is the examined life, and we need to think critically about ourselves.

So then there was the Greek, Socrates, he was great... He invented questioning. Before Socrates, no questioning. Everyone sort of went, ''Yeah, I suppose so.

Socrates' fame spread all over Greece, and the most respected and educated men from all around came to him, in order to enjoy his friendly company and instruction.

What I always liked about Socrates was his insistence on questioning things for the sake of reaching some sort of clarity - even if it is only clarity about the gaps in our knowledge.

You know, I've taught philosophy for years and one argues in the hypothetical all the time.

Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.

The unexamined life is not worth living.

Acting was something I had to do.

I think the deeper you go into questions, the deeper or more interesting the questions get. And I think that's the job of art.

I was reading Plato's 'The Republic' at age 18, and I can't account fully the electricity that had for me.

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

Do I appear to you to have come to a wrong decision, if I devote that time to philosophy, which I otherwise should have spent at the loom?

The Socratic manner is not a game at which two can play

I'm not an academic philosopher, and don't agree with the way the universities approach the subject. I'm a philosopher only in the very loose sense of someone interested in wisdom and well-being attained through reason. But I'm as interested in psychoanalysis and art as I am in philosophy.

The men who are not interested in philosophy need it most urgently; they are most helplessly in its power.

A matter that becomes clear ceases to concern us.--What was that god thinking who counseled, "Know thyself!" Did he perhaps mean,"Cease to concern yourself! Become objective!"--And Socrates?--And "scientific men"?

The fundamental facts about the Greek was that he had to use his mind. The ancient priest had said, "Thus far and no farther. We set the limits of thought." The Greeks said, All things are to be examined and called into question. There are no limits set on thought.

Whether we will philosophize or we won't philosophize, we must philosophize.

A pipe is a pocket philosopher,--a truer one than Socrates, for it never asks questions. Socrates must have been very tiresome, when one thinks of it.

That is a very good question. I don't know the answer. But can you tell me the name of a classical Greek shoemaker?