Socrates quotes - genuine or fabricated?

[Igor Hardy]

Hey Ethan, could you tell where did you take that quote from?

Well, I found it at:
http://thinkexist.com/quotes/socrates/4.html

I'm not sure where that quote is actually from though.   

I'm sorry to say, but it seems like most of these quotes are fakes.

Socrates never wrote down any of his thoughts, as he considered it is not possible to really learn anything from reading - the only way to learn is through live discussion. In consequence, the number of exact quotes from Socrates is close to 0. The quotes at the website might have been spoken by Plato's character of Socrates in Plato's dialogs, but these are no historical accounts and served various philosophical agendas. Anyway, the attribution to the real, historical Socrates and the lack of sources makes the quotes very suspect to say the least.

[Ali]

Since Plato is the principle source of our knowledge of Socrates, surely it's understood that a quote attributed to Socrates derives from Plato's writing?

However, I do find it odd that when I google these quotes it brings up more quote sites rather than online version of Plato's texts.

As Plato himself said: "Put your faith not in what you read online".

[Ethan D]

As Plato himself said: "Put your faith not in what you read online".

Oh, those philosophers with their distrust of the internet.  :

I'm sorry to say, but it seems like most of these quotes are fakes.

Socrates never wrote down any of his thoughts, as he considered it is not possible to really learn anything from reading - the only way to learn is through live discussion. In consequence, the number of exact quotes from Socrates is close to 0. The quotes at the website might have been spoken by Plato's character of Socrates in Plato's dialogs, but these are no historical accounts and served various philosophical agendas. Anyway, the attribution to the real, historical Socrates and the lack of sources makes the quotes very suspect to say the least.

Huh, I never knew that about Socrates.  Or Plato for that matter.

What historical accounts are there of Socrates then if he didn't write his thoughts down though.  How do you know he considered it impossible to learn anything from reading?  I know that his big thing was the Socratic method he used to teach?  I would think that if some sort of document talked about a philosopher it would probably quote him, although I can't be sure.

Although, ultimately I don't think that it matters much whether it's real or not mainly because a quotation is usually just a way to put something into words better than what you can, and the quotes on the site are pretty good.

[Questionable]

I think Socrates is fabricated! A myth to help rationalize silly logic! He, like Jesus, never existed...

[Dualnames]

I think Socrates is fabricated! A myth to help rationalize silly logic! He, like Jesus, never existed...

Hey, I'll have YOU drink the conium. Along with some Cincinnati chilly, of course, I'm not a barbarian.

I prefer Aristotle to Socrates, but they probably did say all those things. Same goes for anyone's quote.

[Questionable]

I prefer Aristocraces... They're eL337.

[Igor Hardy]

Since Plato is the principle source of our knowledge of Socrates, surely it's understood that a quote attributed to Socrates derives from Plato's writing?

I'm not expert at this, but I remember there was at least one more student of Socrates that has written great amounts of texts about Socrates, so philosophy historians try to derive the authentic Socrates' views by comparing these, admittedly scarce, sources.

But beyond recounting the man's actual beliefs, there are quite a few sources mentioning Socrates the person, as he was a well known troublemaker in Athens who kept bothering decent citizens with irritating questions, was "depraving" the youth, and has rarely shown respect for anybody. During his life Aristophanes wrote a satirical play about him, the Delphic oracle confirmed that he is the wisest among men, and finally he was tried and sentenced to death for, basically, being disruptive.

Although, ultimately I don't think that it matters much whether it's real or not mainly because a quotation is usually just a way to put something into words better than what you can, and the quotes on the site are pretty good.

I think more often quotations are brought up to add the authority of some famous person to your own belief. In this case it seemed to me a bit ironic that Socrates would probably strongly disagree with his own alleged quote. But I commented on the quote because I wasn't sure how much value you put in the source of these quotations.

I think Socrates is fabricated! A myth to help rationalize silly logic! He, like Jesus, never existed...

Funnily enough, many Christian philosophers in the Middle Ages loved to compare Socrates to Jesus and kept claiming Socrates was a divinely influenced propagator of Christian values before Jesus was born. The way he died is the most popular point of comparison to Jesus' life.

[Calin Leafshade]

It's true that Socrates never wrote anything down but Plato did.

Plato's dialogues are exactly that.. written accounts of dialogues with Socrates.

So although those quotes would not have been written by Socrates himself, then can still be attributed to him through Plato's writings.

Jesus never wrote anything down either but people quote him all the time.

[Questionable]

Jesus never wrote anything down either but people quote him all the time.

I never thought of this before... how awesome would it be if we found his Diary! lol

"Cured a mans leprosy today... douche didn't even say thanks."

[Ethan D]

I think more often quotations are brought up to add the authority of some famous person to your own belief. In this case it seemed to me a bit ironic that Socrates would probably strongly disagree with his own alleged quote. But I commented on the quote because I wasn't sure how much value you put in the source of these quotations.

Ideally you wouldn't quote someone except for the reason of being unable to say what you want well.    I put no value to the source of a quotation and I would love to have been able to just say the quotation without citing him, but that just wouldn't be right. (Because most quotations are correct...ish.)  If I had found a quote that said the same thing by someone I've never heard of first then I would have used that instead.

Although, the totally honest reason that I did what I did was because it seemed like a good move to get Harg to calm down because it's an poetic way of saying "Listen to what other peoples criticism jerk."  Sadly, it seemed that although it didn't provoke him. (which seems to me to be an accomplishment.) He brushed off what I said  by saying,
'you don't have enough information to be accurate.'  In interest of not hijacking this thread to talk about how much everyone dislikes harg, I'd ask that no one responds to this second paragraph.