A Quote by Socrates

Nobody knows what death is, nor whether to man it is perchance the greatest of blessings, yet people fear it as if they surely knew it to be the worse of evils.

Socrates

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Blessings Death Evils Fear Greatest Knew Knows Man Nobody Nobody Knows Nor People Surely Whether Worse

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Socrates
Greek - Philosopher
469 BC - 399 BC

No one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all blessings for a man, yet men fear it as if they knew it was the greatest of evils.

Plato

To fear death is nothing other than to think oneself wise when one is not. For it is to think one knows what one does not know. No one knows whether death may not even turn out to be the greatest blessings of human beings. And yet people fear it as if they knew for certain it is the greatest evil.

Socrates

No one knows whether death is really the greatest blessing a man can have, but they fear it is the greatest curse, as if they knew well.

Plato

No one knows whether death, which people fear to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good.

Plato

For this fear of death is indeed the pretense of wisdom, and not real wisdom, being the appearance of knowing the unknown; since no one knows whether death, which they in their fear apprehend to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good.

Socrates

To fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise, without being wise: for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For anything that men can tell, death may be the greatest good that can happen to them: but they fear it as if they knew quite well that it was the greatest of evils. And what is this but that shameful ignorance of thinking that we know what we do not know?

Socrates

Death is not the greatest of evils; it is worse to want to die, and not be able to.

Sophocles

No one knows whether death may not be the greatest good that can happen to man.

Plato

Life is the greatest of blessings and death the worst of evils.... all great, powerful souls love life.

Heinrich Heine

It is not the rich man you should properly call happy, but him who knows how to use with wisdom the blessings of the gods, to endure hard poverty, and who fears dishonor worse than death, and is not afraid to die for cherished friends or fatherland.

Horace

Everybody is afraid of death for the simple reason that we have not tasted of life yet. The man who knows what life is, is never afraid of death; he welcomes death. Whenever death comes he hugs death, he embraces death, he welcomes death, he receives death as a guest. To the man who has not known what life is, death is an enemy; and to the man who knows what life is, death is the ultimate crescendo of life.

Rajneesh

It is the strange fate of man, that even in the greatest of evils the fear of the worst continues to haunt him.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

….it was a brave man’s fear. I knew what he meant. What must a brave general feel when he knows the battle has gone against him and nothing remains but death?

Anne Rice

Hope knows not if fear speaks truth, nor fear whether hope be blind as she.

Algernon Charles Swinburne

There is a man sleeping in the grass. And over him is gathering the greatest storm of all his days. Such lightening and thunder will come there has never been seen before, bringing death and destruction. People hurry home past him, to places safe from danger. And whether they do not see him there in the grass, or whether they fear to halt even a moment, but they do not wake him, they let him be.

Alan Paton

If you would live happily, do not exaggerate life's evils, nor slight her blessings.

Joseph Joubert

A Quote by Socrates

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