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.