I was really too honest a man to be a politician and live.

Nature has given us two ears, two eyes, and but one tongue-to the end that we should hear and see more than we speak.

Oh dear Pan and all the other Gods of this place, grant that I may be beautiful inside. Let all my external possessions be in friendly harmony with what is within. May I consider the...

Man’s life is like a drop of dew on a leaf.

I was afraid that by observing objects with my eyes and trying to comprehend them with each of my other senses I might blind my soul altogether.

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

Nuestra juventud de ahora ama el lujo. Tiene malos modales, desprecia la autoridad; le falta el respeto a susmayores y le encanta charlar en lugar de trabajar; ya no se levanta cuando un adulto entra...

I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.

Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel

Are you not ashamed of caring so much for the making of money and for fame and prestige, when you neither think nor care about wisdom and truth and the improvement of your soul?

My advice to you is get married: if you find a good wife you’ll be happy; if not, you’ll become a philosopher.

God takes away the minds of poets, and uses them as his ministers, as he also uses diviners and holy prophets, in order that we who hear them may know them to be speaking not...

When you want wisdom and insight as badly as you want to breathe, it is then you shall have it.

True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.

As to marriage or celibacy, let a man take which course he will, he will be sure to repent.

I pray thee, O God that I may be beautiful within

I am a citizen, not of Athens or Greece, but of the world

Let him that would move the world first move himself.

Let him who would move the world first move himself.

All men’s souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine.

She soars on her own wings.

I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.

The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness; for that runs faster than death.

It is indisputable that the being whose capacities of enjoyment are low, has the greatest chance of having them fully satisfied; and a highly endowed being will always feel that any happiness which he can...

A man who really fights for justice must lead a private, not a public, life if he is to survive for even a short time.

The hottest love has the coldest end.

Envy is the ulcer of the soul

Call no man unhappy until he is married

Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.

Suddenly there were people who came to realize that there must be some things that must be done about the natural environment,

God would seem to indicate to us and not allow us to doubt that these beautiful poems are not human, or the work of man, but divine and the work of God; and that the...

Nobody is qualified to become a statesman who is entirely ignorant of the problem of wheat.

He is the richest who is content with the least

If a rich man is proud of his wealth, he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it.

Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.

An unexamined life is not worth living.

The ancient oracle said that I was the wisest of all the Greeks. It is because I alone, of all the Greeks, know that I know nothing.

If the soul is immortal, it demands our care not only for that part of time which we call life, but for all time: and indeed it would seem now that it will be extremely...

Enjoy yourself — it’s later than you think.

Woman once made equal to man becomes his superior

Give me beauty in the inward soul; may the outward and the inward man be at one.

If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.

There is nothing more notable in Socrates than that he found time, when he was an old man, to learn music and dancing, and thought it time well spent.

The true champion of justice, if he intends to survive even for a short time, must necessarily confine himself to private life and leave politics alone.

In childhood be modest, in youth temperate, in adulthood just, and in old age prudent.

False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.

He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.

How many are the things I can do without!

The easiest and noblest way is not to be disabling to others but to be improving yourselves.

If a man comes to the door of poetry untouched by the madness of the Muses, believing that technique alone will make him a good poet, he and his sane compositions never reach perfection, but...