“From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.”

“An education obtained with money is worse than no education at all.”

“Whom do I call educated? First, those who manage well the circumstances they encounter day by day. Next, those who are decent and honorable in their intercourse with all men, bearing easily and good naturedly what is offensive in others and being as agreeable and reasonable to their associates as is humanly possible to be… those who hold their pleasures always under control and are not ultimately overcome by their misfortunes… those who are not spoiled by their successes, who do not desert their true selves but hold their ground steadfastly as wise and sober — minded men.”

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

“The fewer our wants the more we resemble the Gods.”

“Life contains but two tragedies. One is not to get your heart’s desire; the other is to get it.”

“A multitude of books distracts the mind.”

“Whenever, therefore, people are deceived and form opinions wide of the truth, it is clear that the error has slid into their minds through the medium of certain resemblances to that truth.”

“If I tell you that I would be disobeying the god and on that account it is impossible for me to keep quiet, you won’t be persuaded by me, taking it that I am ionizing. And if I tell you that it is the greatest good for a human being to have discussions every day about virtue and the other things you hear me talking about, examining myself and others, and that the unexamined life is not livable for a human being, you will be even less persuaded.”

“The hour of departure has arrived and we go our ways; I to die, and you to live. Which is better? Only God knows.”

“To fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise, without being wise: for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For anything that men can tell, death may be the greatest good that can happen to them: but they fear it as if they knew quite well that it was the greatest of evils. And what is this but that shameful ignorance of thinking that we know what we do not know?”

“Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions, but those who kindly reprove thy faults.”

“Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.”

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

“He is rich who is content with the least; for contentment is the wealth of nature.”

“Remember, no human condition is ever permanent. Then you will not be overjoyed in good fortune nor too scornful in misfortune.”

“Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.”

“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”

“There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.”

“Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.”

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

“Every action has its pleasures and its price.”

“Remember what is unbecoming to do is also unbecoming to speak of.”

“Be as you wish to seem.”

“Do not do to others what angers you if done to you by others.”

“Beware the barrenness of a busy life.”

“Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.”

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

“Are you not ashamed of heaping up the greatest amount of money and honor and reputation, and caring so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul?”

“Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs; therefore avoid undue elation in prosperity, or undue depression in adversity.”

“We cannot live better than in seeking to become better.”

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”

“Smart people learn from everything and everyone, average people from their experiences, stupid people already have all the answers.”

“Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.”

“The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world, is to be in reality what we would appear to be; and if we observe, we shall find, that all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice of them.”

“No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.”

“I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.”

“Silence is a profound melody, for those who can hear it above all the noise.”

“If you don’t get what you want, you suffer; if you get what you don’t want, you suffer; even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can’t hold on to it forever. Your mind is your predicament. It wants to be free of change. Free of pain, free of the obligations of life and death. But change is law and no amount of pretending will alter that reality.”

“There are two kinds of disease of the soul, vice and ignorance.”

“Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.”

“Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people.”

“The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.”

“When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.”

“Having the fewest wants, I am nearest to the gods.”

“The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.”

“Falling down is not a failure. Failure comes when you stay where you have fallen.”

“Prefer knowledge to wealth, for the one is transitory, the other perpetual.”

“Get not your friends by bare compliments, but by giving them sensible tokens of your love.”

“Be nicer than necessary to everyone you meet. Everyone is fighting some kind of battle.” -Socrates