I hold that to need nothing is divine, and the less a man needs the nearer he does approach divinity.
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Call no man unhappy until he is married.
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As to marriage or celibacy, let a man take the course he will. He will be sure to repent.
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He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.
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Virtue does not come from wealth, but health, and every other good thing which men have comes from virtue.
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One who is injured ought not to return the injury, for on no account can it be right to do an injustice; and it is not right to return an injury, or to do evil to any man, however much we have suffered from him.
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Do not do to others what angers you if done to you by others.
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Get not your friends by bare compliments, but by giving them sensible tokens of your love.
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I was afraid that by observing objects with my eyes and trying to comprehend them with each of my other senses I might blind my soul altogether.
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Has a philosopher like you failed to discover that our country is more to be valued and higher and holier far than mother or father or any ancestor, and more to be regarded in the eyes of the gods and of men of understanding?
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Let him that would move the world first move himself.
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True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.
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If my life is to be prolonged now, I know that I must live out my old age, seeing worse, hearing less, learning with more difficulty, and forgetting more and more of what I have learned. If I see myself growing worse and reproach myself for it, tell me, how could I continue to live pleasantly? Perhaps even the god in his kindness is offering to end my life not only at the right time, but also in the easiest way possible...
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Four things belong to a judge: to hear courteously, to answer wisely, to consider soberly, and to decide impartially.
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The nearest way to glory is to strive to be what you wish to be thought to be.
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By means of beauty all beautiful things become beautiful. For this appears to me the safest answer to give both to myself and others; and adhering to this, I think that I shall never fall, but that it is a safe answer both for me and any one else to give — that by means of beauty beautiful things become beautiful.
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To need nothing is divine, and the less a man needs the nearer does he approach to divinity.
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False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.
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If a man is proud of his wealth, he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it.
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Oh dear Pan and all the other Gods of this place, grant that I may be beautiful inside. Let all my external possessions be in friendly harmony with what is within. May I consider the wise man rich. As for gold, let me have as much as a moderate man could bear and carry with him.
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My belief is that to have no wants is divine.
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The fewer our wants, the nearer we resemble the gods.
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The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being. (ho de anexetastos bios ou biôtos anthrôpôi)
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The poets are only the interpreters of the Gods.
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There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.
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Know thyself.
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I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.
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Thou shouldst eat to live; not live to eat.
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An honest man is always a child.
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Memorabilia IV. 8.8
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Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs; therefore avoid undue elation in prosperity, or undue depression in adversity.
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Such as thy words are, such will thy affections be esteemed; and such will thy deeds be as thy affections and such thy life as thy deeds.
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Memorabilia I. 4.18
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Remember what is unbecoming to do is also unbecoming to speak of.
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I do nothing but go about persuading you all, old and young alike, not to take thought for your persons or your properties, but and chiefly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul. I tell you that virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of man, public as well as private. This is my teaching, and if this is the doctrine which corrupts the youth, I am a mischievous person.
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Wind buffs up empty bladders; opinion, fools.
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In every one of us there are two ruling and directing principles, whose guidance we follow wherever they may lead; the one being an innate desire of pleasure; the other, an acquired judgment which aspires after excellence.
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Not I, but the city, teaches.
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Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.
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Envy is the ulcer of the soul.
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Could I climb to the highest place in Athens, I would lift my voice and proclaim, "Fellow citizens, why do you turn and scrape every stone to gather wealth, and take so little care of your children to whom one day you must relinquish it all?"
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Last words of his speech following the sentence of death.
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When I left him, I reasoned thus with myself: I am wiser than this man, for neither of us appears to know anything great and good; but he fancies he knows something, although he knows nothing; whereas I, as I do not know anything, so I do not fancy I do. In this trifling particular, then, I appear to be wiser than he, because I do not fancy I know what I do not know.
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Philosophy begins with wonder.
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Flattery is like friendship in show, but not in fruit.
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Xenophon in Memorabilia IV. 8.1
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What a lot of things there are a man can do without.
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Variant: If all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.
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Beauty is the bait which with delight allures man to enlarge his kind.
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