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

It is not living that matters, but living rightly.

The greater the difficulty, the more the glory in surmounting it.

The poets are only the interpreters of the Gods.

Of all things which wisdom provides to make life entirely happy, much the greatest is the possession of friendship.

Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.

By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.

Opposition brings concord. Out of discord comes the fairest harmony.

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

Misfortune seldom intrudes upon the wise man; his greatest and highest interests are directed by reason throughout the course of life.

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

A free life cannot acquire many possessions, because this is not easy to do without servility to mobs or monarchs.

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

Let him that would move the world first move himself.

A man’s character is his guardian divinity.

Be as you wish to seem.

Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.

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

Hide our ignorance as we will, an evening of wine soon reveals it.

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

We do not so much need the help of our friends as the confidence of their help in need.

I would rather be first in a little Iberian village than second in Rome.

From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.

The art of living well and the art of dying well are one.

Ordinary people seem not to realize that those who really apply themselves in the right way to philosophy are directly and of their own accord preparing themselves for dying and death.

Much learning does not teach understanding.

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

Riches do not exhilarate us so much with their possession as they torment us with their loss.

An honest man is always a child.

Of all the things which wisdom acquires to produce the blessedness of the complete life far the greatest is the possession of Friendship.

A system of morality which is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception which has nothing sound in it and nothing true.

Character is destiny.

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

I never desired to please the rabble. What pleased them, I did not learn; and what I knew was far removed from their understanding.

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

The misfortune of the wise is better than the prosperity of the fool.

Beauty is the bait which with delight allures man to enlarge his kind.

It is hard to contend against one’s heart’s desire; for whatever it wishes to have it buys at the cost of soul.

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

It is folly for a man to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to obtain by himself.

As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.

If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.

The unexamined life is not worth living.

Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued.

Big results require big ambitions.

The end of life is to be like God, and the soul following God will be like Him.

Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempest.

Wisdom begins in wonder.

It is better for you to be free of fear lying upon a pallet,than to have a golden couch and a rich table and be full of trouble.

The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.