The unexamined life is not worth living.
Apology, 38a (399 BCE)
Theme
Secular quotes
Reason, habit, and self-knowledge from the philosophers who left the gods out of it.
8 verified quotes
I think, therefore I am.
Discourse on the Method, Part IV (1637)
The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest people of past centuries.
Discourse on the Method, Part I (1637)
Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.
The Social Contract, Book I, ch. 1 (1762)
The reward of a thing well done is to have done it.
Essays: Second Series, 'New England Reformers' (1844)
Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.
Letter to Joë Bousquet, letter to Joë Bousquet, 13 April 1942 (1942)
The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.
On Becoming a Person (1961)
It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, ch. 18 (1998)