A dog has the soul of a philosopher.
True friendship can exist only between equals.
Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion has no hold on the mind. Therefore do not use compulsion, but let early education be a sort of amusement; you will then be better able to discover the child’s natural bent.
For 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.
Everything that deceives may be said to enchant.
Philosophy is the highest music.
Is there a perfect world?
I have hardly ever known a mathematician who was capable of reasoning.
When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty and there is nothing to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other in order that the people may require a leader.
When there is an income tax, the just man will pay more and the unjust less on the same amount of income.
Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind’s eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye.
Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself.
Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.
Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.
There should exist among the citizens neither extreme poverty nor again excessive wealth, for both are productive of great evil.
Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable.
The true lover of knowledge naturally strives for truth, and is not content with common opinion, but soars with undimmed and unwearied passion till he grasps the essential nature of things.
Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood let alone believed by the masses.
The wise man will want to be ever with him who is better than himself.