Jean Sylvère credited as playing...
Socrate
- Socrate: If you had listened to me, for years I've been urging you to realize that there is but one good: knowledge. And there is but one evil: the presumption of knowledge.
- Socrate: Traditions make sense only insofar as we can evaluate their meaning. We must distrust custom. Chosen at random by custom, the leaders of our democracy, almost all of them ignorant men with a presumption of knowledge, are easy prey for any newcomer and are often guilty of being unjust. That is why we can measure, each day, the power of slander.
- Socrate: It's a good thing to have ideas about the things we know. But you Athenians only have opinions, opinions on everything. You are proud, you are weak, you constantly talk about things you know nothing about or things you know poorly.
- Socrate: Let us respect all opinions, even if we disagree with them. What I care about is agreeing with myself and trying never to do the opposite of what I think.
- Socrate: We pray to the gods for a favorable destiny. It would be better to pray for them to help us navigate towards the good, for their divine breath to fill our sails, so that we might feel the excitement of sailors at the sight of their goal.
- Socrate: The greatest happiness is to be just. It is such a great gift that those who commit evil deeds are insane.
- Socrate: In reality, the powerful wield their power to hide the fact they are weak. And their weakness comes from the fear that dominates them. They see themselves perpetually surrounded by enemies and is this not madness? For us, it will suffice simply to ignore them.
- Socrate: Man, in fact, can wish only for his own good. And he who is unjust harms first of all himself. Slowly, the memory of the crimes he has committed drive him crazy.
- Socrate: In order to survive, the states do not need arsenals or empires. If they possess but virtue, their citizens will die to defend them.
- Ifelides: How low we have sunk. I hate these tyrants with my entire soul.
- Socrate: You hate them, but you are prepared to obey them because you are afraid. I do not hate them, but I will not obey their orders. I am going home.
- Ifelides: But, that is insanity, Socrates.
- Socrate: Sometimes one must know when to be insane.
- Socrate: He who wishes to see the sun will burn his eyes, if he looks right at it. He must study it by looking at reflections in the water.
- Socrate: The soul becomes blind if it searches for truth in the details. It must take refuge in the world of reason.
- Socrate: I have learned to make do with the bare minimum. Because I am content with very little, I am always close to the gods.
- Socrate: Athens is my country. I proved it on the battlefield. But I still think that the earth is huge and that many other people are spread around the sea like frogs around a pond. Wisdom is not only Athenian or strength Spartan or prudence Corinthian. Other peoples possess these virtues. I am an Athenian, but also a man like all other men on earth.
- Socrate: I think that death is a liberation. If I can't be certain while I inhabit my body, I think there are two options: Either knowledge is forbidden to me or I will gain it only in death, and you know how curious I am. Let me die, Aesculapius, surrounded by my friends, full of hope of finding in the hereafter the repose of knowledge.
- Socrate: So you know what beauty is?
- Hippias: Yes, of course.
- Socrate: Would you explain it to me?
- Hippias: That's easy! A beautiful virgin. Socrates, that's beauty.
- Socrate: A good answer. But tell me, Hippias, can we say that a beautiful mare is beautiful?
- Hippias: Yes. In my town, there are mares of great beauty.
- Socrate: And a beautiful pot, Hippias, is that a thing of beauty?
- Hippias: I don't understand, my dear Socrates, why you would use such a mundane object to discuss such lofty ideas.
- Socrate: What can I say? I'm just a boor. But you must admit that a beautiful pot is beautiful.
- Hippias: Yes, perhaps. But even the most beautiful of pots compared to a beautiful virgin is ugly.
- Socrate: Just as the most beautiful virgin is ugly when compared to a god. Isn't that what you're saying?
- Hippias: Exactly.
- Socrate: Yet, earlier you said, "A beautiful virgin. That's what beauty is." And now you're saying that compared to a god she is ugly. But she can't be beautiful and ugly at the same time. You still have not told me what beauty is.
- Hippias: I'll tell you some other time, whenever you want. Good-bye.
- Socrate: One might think that texts speak intelligently, but if you try to question them, they will merely repeat themselves. Text pass indifferently from one hand to another with no ability to distinguish between fools and wise men. And if these texts attack, if they unfairly accuse you, there is no way for you to make them change their mind.