"Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety." 

 "Those who tell the stories rule society." 

 "A hero is born among a hundred, a wise man is found among a thousand." 

 "I used to imagine that no human can make men good; but I know better now." 

 "To love rightly is to love what is orderly and beautiful in an educated and disciplined way." 

 "Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men." 

 "The worst type of man behaves as badly in his waking life as some men do in their dreams." 

 "Always be kind, for everyone is fighting a hard battle." 

 "I am not given to finding fault, for there are innumerable fools." 

 "Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence." 

 "Everything desires not like but unlike: for example, the dry desires the moist, the cold the hot, the bitter the sweet, the sharp the blunt, the void the full, the fill the void, and so of all other things; for the opposite is the food of the opposite, whereas receives nothing from like.,." 

 "No one ever dies an atheist." 

 "This is not difficult, O Athenians! to escape death; but it is much more difficult to avoid depravity, for it runs swifter than death. And now I, being slow and aged, am overtaken by the slower of the two; but my accusers, being strong and active, have been overtaken by the swifter, wickedness. And now I depart, condemned by you to death; but they condemned by truth, as guilty of iniquity and injustice: and I abide my sentence, and so do they. These things, perhaps, ought so to be, and I think that they are for the best.,." 

 "The man deserved his fate, deny it who can; yes, but the fate did not deserve the man." 

 "Everyone thinks because it is solely responsible for the wisdom or folly of his life, that is to say of his destiny." 

 "I say that justice is nothing other than the advantage of the stronger." 

 "Doesn’t it follow that a ship’s captain or ruler won’t seek and order what is advantageous to himself, but what is advantageous to a sailor? No one in any position of rule, insofar as he is a ruler, seeks or orders what is advantageous to himself, but what is advantageous to his subjects; the ones of whom he is himself the craftsman. It is to his subjects and what is advantageous and proper to them that he looks, and everything he says and does he says and does for them." 

 "The good are like one another, and friends to one another; and ... the bad, as is often said of them, are never at unity with one another or with themselves, but are passionate and restless: and that which is at variance and enmity with itself is not likely to be in union or harmony with any other thing.,." 

 "Philosophers are the ones who can reach what always stays the same in every respect, and non- philosophers the ones who cannot, who wonder among the many things that go in every direction." 

 "To fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise without really being wise, for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For no one knows whether death may not be the greatest good that can happen to man." 

 "The point which I should first wish to understand is whether the pious or holy is beloved by the gods because it is holy, or holy because it is beloved of the gods." 

 "The more the pleasures of the body fade away, the greater to me is the pleasure and charm of conversation." 

 "Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and political greatness and wisdom meet in one, and those commoner natures who pursue either to the exclusion of the other are compelled to stand aside, cities will never have rest from their evils — no, nor the human race, as I believe — and then only will this our State have a possibility of life and behold the light of day." 

 "It is impossible to improve the world if first the man does not improve." 

 "Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder." 

 "Always be kind, for everyone is fighting a hard battle." 

 "A principle which has any soundness should stand firm not only just now, but always." 

 "It is impossible to improve the world if first the man does not improve." 

 "The only real ill-doing is the deprivation of knowledge." 

 "Have you not perceived that imitations, whether of bodily gestures, tones of voice, or modes of thought, if they be persevered in from an early age, are apt to grow into habits and a second nature?" 

 "Either we shall find what it is we are seeking or at least we shall free ourselves from the persuasion that we know what we do not know." 

 "All enquiry and all learning is but recollection." 

 "You don’t seem to love money too much. And those who haven’t made their own money are usually like you. But those who have made it for themselves are twice as fond of it as those who haven’t." 

 "The desire for sex turns the penis into a disobedient thing with a mind of its own. Like an animal that will not listen .it tries to take complete control." 

 "This is not difficult, O Athenians! to escape death; but it is much more difficult to avoid depravity, for it runs swifter than death. And now I, being slow and aged, am overtaken by the slower of the two; but my accusers, being strong and active, have been overtaken by the swifter, wickedness. And now I depart, condemned by you to death; but they condemned by truth, as guilty of iniquity and injustice: and I abide my sentence, and so do they. These things, perhaps, ought so to be, and I think that they are for the best.,." 

 "By harming a horse, you decrease his excellence. Thus, by harming a person, you decrease their excellence." 

 "Prefer diligence before idleness, unless you esteem rust above brightness." 

 "I must go beyond the dark world of sense information to the clear brilliance of the sunlight of the outside world. Once done, it becomes my duty to go back to the cave in order to illuminate the minds of those imprisoned in the ‘darkness’ of sensory knowledge." 

 "They think that you bear old age more easily not because of the way you live but because you’re wealthy, for the wealthy, they say, have many consolations." 

 "If a person does not attend to the meaning of terms as they are commonly used in argument, he may be involved even in greater paradoxes." 

 "The point which I should first wish to understand is whether the pious or holy is beloved by the gods because it is holy, or holy because it is beloved of the gods." 

 "Men say that everyone is naturally a lover of himself, and that it is right that it should be so. This is a mistake; for in fact the cause of all the blunders committed by man arises from this excessive self-love. For the lover is blinded by the object loved, so that he passes a wrong judgment upon what is just, good, and beautiful, thinking that he ought always to honor what belongs to himself, in preference to truth. For he who intends to be a great man ought to love neither himself nor his own things, but only what is just, whether it happens to be done by himself or by another." 

 "He who commits injustice is ever made more wretched than he who suffers it." 

 "Appearance tyrannizes over truth." 

 "No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death." 

 "No one is a friend to his friend who does not love in return." 

 "He could not harm me, for I do not think it is permitted that a better man be harmed by a worse." 

 "The good are like one another, and friends to one another; and ... the bad, as is often said of them, are never at unity with one another or with themselves, but are passionate and restless: and that which is at variance and enmity with itself is not likely to be in union or harmony with any other thing.,." 

 "The harder you work, the luckier you get." 

 "You ought not to attempt to cure the eyes without the head, or the head without the eyes, so neither ought you to attempt to cure the body without the soul." 

 "Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything. It is the essence of order, and leads to all that is god, just, and beautiful, of which it is the invisible, but never less, dazzling, passionate, and eternal form." 

 "Men say that everyone is naturally a lover of himself, and that it is right that it should be so. This is a mistake; for in fact the cause of all the blunders committed by man arises from this excessive self-love. For the lover is blinded by the object loved, so that he passes a wrong judgment upon what is just, good, and beautiful, thinking that he ought always to honor what belongs to himself, in preference to truth. For he who intends to be a great man ought to love neither himself nor his own things, but only what is just, whether it happens to be done by himself or by another." 

 "I have good hope that there is something after death." 

 "A work well begun is half ended." 

 "Love is of something, and that which love desires is not that which love is or has; for no man desires that which he is or has." 

 "If a person does not attend to the meaning of terms as they are commonly used in argument, he may be involved even in greater paradoxes." 

 "A library of wisdom, is more precious than all wealth, and all things that are desirable cannot be compared to it. Whoever therefore claims to be zealous of truth, of happiness, of wisdom or knowledge, must become a lover of books." 

 "The greatest wealth is to live content with little." 

 "It behooves those who take the young to task to leave them room for excuse, lest they drive them to be hardened by too much rebuke." 

 "There must always remain something that is antagonistic to good." 

 "Philosophy is the highest music." 

 "He who refuses to rule is liable to be ruled by one who is worse than himself." 

 "Strange times are these in which we live when old and young are taught falsehoods in school. And the person that dares to tell the truth is called at once a lunatic and fool." 

 "How singular is the thing called pleasure, and how curiously related to pain, which might be thought to be the opposite of it; for they never come to a man together, and yet he who pursues either of them is generally compelled to take the other. They are two, and yet they grow together out of one head or stem." 

 "The plan grows under the author's hand; new thoughts occur to him in the act of writing; he has not worked out the argument to the end before he begins." 

 "You know that the beginning is the most important part of any work, especially in the case of a young and tender thing; for that is the time at which the character is being formed and the desired impression is more readily taken. Shall we just carelessly allow children to hear any casual tales which may be devised by casual persons, and to receive into their minds ideas for the most part the very opposite of those which we should wish them to have when they are grown up?" 

 "States are as the men, they grow out of human characters." 

 "They think that you bear old age more easily not because of the way you live but because you’re wealthy, for the wealthy, they say, have many consolations." 

 "Prefer diligence before idleness, unless you esteem rust above brightness." 

 "Human behavior flows from three main sources desire, emotion, and knowledge." 

 "Wealth is well known to be a great comforter." 

 "For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories." 

 "Knowledge is the food of the soul." 

 "Let the speaker speak truly and the judge decide justly." 

 "I must distinguish between that which always is and never becomes and which is apprehended by reason and reflection, and that which always becomes and never is and is conceived by opinion with the help of sense." 

 "No one ever teaches well who wants to teach, or governs well who wants to govern." 

 "No one ever dies an atheist." 

 "You ought not to attempt to cure the eyes without the head, or the head without the eyes, so neither ought you to attempt to cure the body without the soul." 

 "Each person must tend to the business that accords with his nature." 

 "There is nothing I like better than conversing with aged men. For I regard them as travelers who have gone a journey which I too may have to go, and of whom I ought to inquire whether the way is smooth and easy or rugged and difficult. Is life harder toward the end, or what report do you give it?" 

 "He who wishes to serve his country must have not only the power to think, but the will to act." 

 "When I hear a man discoursing of virtue, or of any sort of wisdom, who is a true man and worthy of his theme, I am delighted beyond measure: and I compare the man and his words, and note the harmony and correspondence of them. And such a one I deem to be the true musician, having in himself a fairer harmony than that of the lyre.,." 

 "There's no chance of their having a conscious glimpse of the truth as long as they refuse to disturb the things they take for granted and remain incapable of explaining them. For if your starting point is unknown, and your end-point and intermediate stages are woven together out of unknown material, there may be coherence, but knowledge is completely out of the question." 

 "There are three classes of men; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain." 

 "An accomplished one might not be found even among a hundred thousand men." 

 "Beholding beauty with the eye of the mind, he will be enabled to bring forth, not images of beauty, but realities (for he has hold not of an image but of a reality), and bringing forth and nourishing true virtue to become the friend of God and be immortal, if mortal man may." 

 "The wise man will want to be ever with him who is better than himself." 

 "You are young, my son, and, as the years go by, time will change and even reverse many of your present opinions. Refrain therefore awhile from setting yourself up as a judge of the highest matters." 

 "No tools will make a man a skilled workmen, or master of defense, or be of any use to him who has not learned how to handle them and has never bestowed any attention on them." 

 "Democracy is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequal alike." 

 "Human behavior flows from three main sources desire, emotion, and knowledge." 

 "Everything that deceives may be said to enchant." 

 "It's not at all uncommon to find a person's desires compelling him to go against his reason, and to see him cursing himself and venting his passion on the source of the compulsion within him. It's as if there were two warring factions, with passion fighting on the side of reason." 

 "Justice will only exist where those not affected by injustice are filled with the same amount of indignation as those offended." 

 "Every king springs from a race of slaves, and every slave had kings among his ancestors." 

 "Mankind will never see an end of trouble until lovers of wisdom come to hold political power, or the holders of power become lovers of wisdom." 

 "Isn't it a bad thing to be deceived about the truth, and a good thing to know what the truth is?" 

 "Music then is simply the result of the effects of Love on rhythm and harmony." 

 "Wonder is the only beginning of philosophy." 

 "Those who have a natural talent for calculation are generally quick-witted at every other kind of knowledge; and even the dull, if they have had an arithmetical training, although they may derive no other advantage from it, always become much quicker than they would have been." 

 "He who commits injustice is ever made more wretched than he who suffers it." 

 "The philosopher is in love with truth, that is, not with the changing world of sensation, which is the object of opinion, but with the unchanging reality which is the object of knowledge."