100 ideas
| 14857 | The highest wisdom has the guise of simplicity [Nietzsche] |
| 13773 | For the truth you need Prodicus's fifty-drachma course, not his one-drachma course [Socrates] |
| 7421 | A philosopher is one who cares about what other people care about [Socrates, by Foucault] |
| 1649 | Socrates opened philosophy to all, but Plato confined moral enquiry to a tiny elite [Vlastos on Socrates] |
| 14854 | Deep thinkers know that they are always wrong [Nietzsche] |
| 14833 | Comedy is a transition from fear to exuberance [Nietzsche] |
| 5842 | Philosophical discussion involves dividing subject-matter into categories [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
| 648 | Socrates began the quest for something universal with his definitions, but he didn't make them separate [Socrates, by Aristotle] |
| 164 | It is legitimate to play the devil's advocate [Socrates] |
| 1647 | In Socratic dialogue you must say what you believe, so unasserted premises are not debated [Vlastos on Socrates] |
| 115 | Socrates was pleased if his mistakes were proved wrong [Socrates] |
| 22099 | The method of Socrates shows the student is discovering the truth within himself [Socrates, by Carlisle] |
| 5844 | Socrates always proceeded in argument by general agreement at each stage [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
| 11389 | Socrates sought essences, which are the basis of formal logic [Socrates, by Aristotle] |
| 14853 | Truth finds fewest champions not when it is dangerous, but when it is boring [Nietzsche] |
| 24075 | Convictions, more than lies, are the great enemy of truth [Nietzsche] |
| 639 | Socrates developed definitions as the basis of syllogisms, and also inductive arguments [Socrates, by Aristotle] |
| 1652 | Socrates did not consider universals or definitions as having separate existence, but Plato made Forms of them [Socrates, by Aristotle] |
| 14858 | Being certain presumes that there are absolute truths, and means of arriving at them [Nietzsche] |
| 14830 | Intuition only recognises what is possible, not what exists or is certain [Nietzsche] |
| 20378 | Just as skin hides the horrors of the body, vanity conceals the passions of the soul [Nietzsche] |
| 1650 | For Socrates our soul, though hard to define, is our self [Vlastos on Socrates] |
| 23252 | Socrates first proposed that we are run by mind or reason [Socrates, by Frede,M] |
| 195 | No one willingly commits an evil or base act [Socrates] |
| 1653 | Socrates did not accept the tripartite soul (which permits akrasia) [Vlastos on Socrates] |
| 5843 | People do what they think they should do, and only ever do what they think they should do [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
| 5253 | Socrates was shocked by the idea of akrasia, but observation shows that it happens [Aristotle on Socrates] |
| 199 | The common belief is that people can know the best without acting on it [Socrates] |
| 5839 | For Socrates, wisdom and prudence were the same thing [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
| 5867 | For Socrates, virtues are forms of knowledge, so knowing justice produces justice [Socrates, by Aristotle] |
| 5069 | Socrates was the first to base ethics upon reason, and use reason to explain it [Taylor,R on Socrates] |
| 5836 | All human virtues are increased by study and practice [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
| 5840 | The wise perform good actions, and people fail to be good without wisdom [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
| 14820 | People always do what they think is right, according to the degree of their intellect [Nietzsche] |
| 14856 | Our judgment seems to cause our nature, but actually judgment arises from our nature [Nietzsche] |
| 14842 | Why are the strong tastes of other people so contagious? [Nietzsche] |
| 185 | Socrates despised good looks [Socrates, by Plato] |
| 14835 | Artists are not especially passionate, but they pretend to be [Nietzsche] |
| 22473 | Nietzsche said the will doesn't exist, so it can't ground moral responsibility [Nietzsche, by Foot] |
| 14807 | The history of morality rests on an error called 'responsibility', which rests on an error called 'free will' [Nietzsche] |
| 14823 | Ceasing to believe in human responsibility is bitter, if you had based the nobility of humanity on it [Nietzsche] |
| 14824 | It is absurd to blame nature and necessity; we should no more praise actions than we praise plants or artworks [Nietzsche] |
| 14812 | Intellect is tied to morality, because it requires good memory and powerful imagination [Nietzsche] |
| 14810 | Originally it was the rulers who requited good for good and evil for evil who were called 'good' [Nietzsche] |
| 5070 | Socrates conservatively assumed that Athenian conventions were natural and true [Taylor,R on Socrates] |
| 5838 | A well-made dung basket is fine, and a badly-made gold shield is base, because of function [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
| 14831 | No one has ever done anything that was entirely for other people [Nietzsche] |
| 14855 | Simultaneous love and respect are impossible; love has no separation or rank, but respect admits power [Nietzsche] |
| 5837 | Things are both good and fine by the same standard [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
| 14815 | We get enormous pleasure from tales of noble actions [Nietzsche] |
| 3017 | The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance [Socrates, by Diog. Laertius] |
| 1646 | Socrates was the first to put 'eudaimonia' at the centre of ethics [Socrates, by Vlastos] |
| 14849 | We can only achieve happy moments, not happy eras [Nietzsche] |
| 1663 | By 'areté' Socrates means just what we mean by moral virtue [Vlastos on Socrates] |
| 14818 | First morality is force, then custom, then acceptance, then instinct, then a pleasure - and finally 'virtue' [Nietzsche] |
| 20103 | You are mastered by your own virtues, but you must master them, and turn them into tools [Nietzsche] |
| 14817 | The 'good' man does the moral thing as if by nature, easily and gladly, after a long inheritance [Nietzsche] |
| 4323 | Socrates is torn between intellectual virtue, which is united and teachable, and natural virtue, which isn't [PG on Socrates] |
| 8003 | Socrates agrees that virtue is teachable, but then denies that there are teachers [Socrates, by MacIntyre] |
| 126 | We should ask what sort of people we want to be [Socrates] |
| 4111 | Socrates believed that basically there is only one virtue, the power of right judgement [Socrates, by Williams,B] |
| 7808 | Socrates made the civic values of justice and friendship paramount [Socrates, by Grayling] |
| 14809 | All societies of good men give a priority to gratitude [Nietzsche] |
| 14816 | Justice (fairness) originates among roughly equal powers (as the Melian dialogues show) [Nietzsche] |
| 23907 | Courage is scientific knowledge [Socrates, by Aristotle] |
| 14821 | Apart from philosophers, most people rightly have a low estimate of pity [Nietzsche] |
| 20112 | Pity consoles those who suffer, because they see that they still have the power to hurt [Nietzsche] |
| 14841 | Many people are better at having good friends than being a good friend [Nietzsche] |
| 14843 | Women can be friends with men, but only some physical antipathy will maintain it [Nietzsche] |
| 14811 | In Homer it is the contemptible person, not the harmful person, who is bad [Nietzsche] |
| 7585 | Socrates emphasises that the knower is an existing individual, with existence his main task [Socrates, by Kierkegaard] |
| 20111 | We could live more naturally, relishing the spectacle, and not thinking we are special [Nietzsche] |
| 14844 | People do not experience boredom if they have never learned to work properly [Nietzsche] |
| 14808 | Over huge periods of time human character would change endlessly [Nietzsche] |
| 14822 | If self-defence is moral, then so are most expressions of 'immoral' egoism [Nietzsche] |
| 14838 | The state aims to protect individuals from one another [Nietzsche] |
| 14852 | Culture cannot do without passions and vices [Nietzsche] |
| 14846 | If we want the good life for the greatest number, we must let them decide on the good life [Nietzsche] |
| 5841 | Obedience to the law gives the best life, and success in war [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
| 7492 | Early societies are based on community, and modern societies on association [Tönnies, by Watson] |
| 14819 | Slavery cannot be judged by our standards, because the sense of justice was then less developed [Nietzsche] |
| 14847 | Laws that are well thought out, or laws that are easy to understand? [Nietzsche] |
| 14814 | Execution is worse than murder, because we are using the victim, and really we are the guilty [Nietzsche] |
| 1661 | Socrates was the first to grasp that a cruelty is not justified by another cruelty [Vlastos on Socrates] |
| 14836 | People will enthusiastically pursue an unwanted war, once sacrifices have been made [Nietzsche] |
| 14845 | Don't crush girls with dull Gymnasium education, the way we have crushed boys! [Nietzsche] |
| 14848 | Education in large states is mediocre, like cooking in large kitchens [Nietzsche] |
| 14839 | Interest in education gains strength when we lose interest in God [Nietzsche] |
| 14834 | Teachers only gather knowledge for their pupils, and can't be serious about themselves [Nietzsche] |
| 5846 | A lover using force is a villain, but a seducer is much worse, because he corrupts character [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
| 14825 | In religious thought nature is a complex of arbitrary acts by conscious beings [Nietzsche] |
| 14826 | Modern man wants laws of nature in order to submit to them [Nietzsche] |
| 1657 | Socrates holds that right reason entails virtue, and this must also apply to the gods [Vlastos on Socrates] |
| 1662 | A new concept of God as unswerving goodness emerges from Socrates' commitment to virtue [Vlastos on Socrates] |
| 14827 | The Greeks saw the gods not as their masters, but as idealised versions of themselves [Nietzsche] |
| 14813 | Science rejecting the teaching of Christianity in favour of Epicurus shows the superiority of the latter [Nietzsche] |
| 14832 | The Sermon on the Mount is vanity - praying to one part of oneself, and demonising the rest [Nietzsche] |
| 14850 | Christ was the noblest human being [Nietzsche] |
| 14837 | Christ seems warm hearted, and suppressed intellect in favour of the intellectually weak [Nietzsche] |
| 14828 | Religion is tempting if your life is boring, but you can't therefore impose it on the busy people [Nietzsche] |