The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousand fold.

The secret to humor is surprise.

The society that loses its grip on the past is in danger, for it produces men who know nothing but the present, and who are not aware that life had been, and could be, different from what it is.

The true and the approximately true are apprehended by the same faculty; it may also be noted that men have a sufficient natural instinct for what is true, and usually do arrive at the truth. Hence the man who makes a good guess at truth is likely to make a good guess at probabilities.

The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.

We must be neither cowardly nor rash but courageous.

We praise a man who feels angry on the right grounds and against the right persons and also in the right manner at the right moment and for the right length of time.

Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.

Why is it that all those who have become eminent in philosophy, politics, poetry, or the arts are clearly of an atrabilious temperament and some of them to such an extent as to be affected by diseases caused by black bile?

You will never do anything in the world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.

Men create gods after their own image, not only with regard to their form but with regard to their mode of life.

The actuality of thought is life.

The difference between a learned man and an ignorant one is the same as that between a living man and a corpse.

The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.

The energy of the mind is the essence of life.

The happy life is regarded as a life in conformity with virtue. It is a life which involves effort and is not spent in amusement.

The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.

The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.

We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; in feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart throbs. He most lives who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.

We make war that we may live in peace.

The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control, and outnumbers both of the other classes.

The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.

The proof that you know something is that you are able to teach it.

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.

This is the reason why mothers are more devoted to their children than fathers: it is that they suffer more in giving them birth and are more certain that they are their own.

Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach.

Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.

Through discipline comes freedom.

To be conscious that we are perceiving or thinking is to be conscious of our own existence.

To the query, What is a friend? his reply was A single soul dwelling in two bodies.

To write well, express yourself like common people, but think like a wise man. Or, think as wise men do, but speak as the common people do.

We cannot learn without pain.

Wit is educated insolence.

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think.

Love is composed of single soul inhabiting two bodies.

To love someone is to identify with them.

Wicked men obey from fear; good men, from love.

A friend to all is a friend to none.

Friends hold a mirror up to each other; through that mirror they can see each other in ways that would not otherwise be accessible to them, and it is this mirroring that helps them improve themselves as persons.

Friendship is essentially a partnership.

Good habits formed at youth make all the difference.

Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.

Most people would rather give than get affection.

My best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake.

Piety requires us to honor truth above our friends.

The antidote for fifty enemies is one friend.

Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow-ripening fruit.

Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.

A friend to all is a friend to none.