A Quote by William Sloane Coffin

Socrates had it wrong; it is not the unexamined but finally the uncommitted life that is not worth living.

William Sloane Coffin

Quote Topics

Finally Had Life Living Uncommitted Worth Worth Living Wrong

Quote Author

William Sloane Coffin
American - Priest
June 1, 1924 - April 12, 2006

Socrates said the unexamined life is not worth living. But the over-examined life makes you wish you were dead. Given the alternative, I'd rather be living.

Saul Bellow

In a speech, the columnist Charles Krauthammer.... offered a new version of Socrates' famous saying, "The unexamined life is not worth living." In our age of bottomless self-love and obsession with our own feelings, Krauthammer suggested, "The too-examined life is not worth living either.

John Leo

Europe's leaders need to sit down with Socrates for a night; a life unexamined is not worth living. We have to remember that, as he says, the pursuit of wealth should never be at the expense of wisdom.

Bettany Hughes

I started asking the big questions that I had asked in college, that my compatriots the Greek philosophers had asked, like 'what is a good life?' Socrates famously said that 'The unexamined life is not worth living.' I started asking these questions from the starting point of 'what is success?'

Arianna Huffington

An unexamined life is not worth living, and an unexamined faith is not worth holding.

Ergun Caner

Socrates told us, "the unexamined life is not worth living." I think he's calling for curiosity, more than knowledge. In every human society at all times and at all levels, the curious are at the leading edge.

Roger Ebert

As Socrates I believe said the unexamined life is not worth living. I believe that's true. I do believe that.

Joy Behar

Look - I understand that an unexamined life is not worth living, but do you think I could someday have an unexamined lunch?

Elizabeth Gilbert

Socrates said, the unexamined life is not worth living. My dad said, Booty - mmm mmm.

Christopher Titus

We think the way we do partly because Socrates thought the way he did. His basic idea - that the unexamined life is not worth living - is what it means to live in the modern world, to develop ideas and ask questions.

Bettany Hughes

The uncommitted life isn't worth living.

Marshall Fishwick

A live unexamined isn't worth living. I will add, "A life unlived isn't worth examining.

Oscar Wilde

Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued." "It is not living that matters, but living rightly. The unexamined life is not worth living.

Socrates

It may be true that the unexamined life is not worth living-but neither is the unlived life worth examining.

Dan Millman

No one seriously doubts Socrates' maxim: The unexamined life isn't worth living. Self-assessment and attempts at self-improvement are essential aspects of "the good life." Yes, we should engage in ruthless self-reflection and harsh scrutiny, but we should simultaneously acknowledge that such introspection will, at best, only result in a partial view of our minds at work. Complete objectivity is not an option.