Quotes to inspire and reflect

Of necessity, the most like are most full of envy, strife, and hatred of one another, and the most unlike of friendship. For the poor man is compelled to be the friend of the rich, and the weak requires the aid of the strong, and the sick man of the physician; everyone who knows not has to love and court him who knows.

Philosophy, Socrates, if pursued in moderation and at the proper age, is an elegant accomplishment, but too much philosophy is the ruin of human life.

Now actions vary according to the manner of their performance. Take, for example, that which we are now doing, drinking, singing and talking these actions are not in themselves either good or evil, but they turn out in this or that way according to the mode of performing them; and when well done they are good, and when wrongly done they are evil; and in like manner not every love, but only that which has a noble purpose, is noble and worthy of praise.

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.

Old age has a great sense of calm and freedom. When the passions have relaxed their hold and have escaped, not from one master, but from many.

Our love for our children springs from the soul's greatest yearning for immortality.

Observe that open loves are held to be more honorable than secret ones, and that the love of the noblest and highest, even if their persons are less beautiful than others, is especially honorable.

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.

Not only is the old man twice a child, but also the man who is drunk.

No wealth can ever make a bad man at peace with himself

No one punishes the evil-doer under the notion, or for the reason, that he has done wrong. Only the unreasonable fury of a beast acts in that way. But he who desires to inflict rational punishment does not retaliate for a past wrong, for that which is done cannot be undone, but he has regard to the future, and is desirous that the man who is punished, and he who sees him punished, may be deterred from doing wrong again.

No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.

No matter how hard you fight the darkness, every light casts a shadow, and the closer you get to the light, the darker that shadow becomes.

No one ever dies an atheist.

No intelligent man will ever be so bold as to put into language those things which his reason has contemplated.

No knowledge considers or prescribes for the advantage of the stronger, but for that of the weaker, which it rules

No human thing is of serious importance.

Never discourage anyone.. who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.

Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue.

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.

Must not all things at last be swallowed up in Death?

Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul.

Men say that we ought not to enquire into the supreme God and the nature of the universe, nor busy ourselves in searching out the causes of things, and that such enquiries are impious; whereas the very opposite is the truth.

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

Many men are loved by their enemies, and hated by their friends, and are the friends of their enemies, and the enemies of their friends.

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

Mankind censure injustice fearing that they may be the victims of it, and not because they shrink from committing it.

Man...is a tame or civilized animal; never the less, he requires proper instruction and a fortunate nature, and then of all animals he becomes the most divine and most civilized; but if he be insufficiently or ill- educated he is the most savage of earthly creatures.

Man is a prisoner who has no right to open the door of his prison and run away... A man should wait, and not take his own life until God summons him.

Most men in power become villains

Man is a being in search of meaning.

Lust is inseparably accompanied with the troubling of all order, with impudence, unseemliness, sloth, and dissoluteness.

Love is of the beautiful, and therefore has not the beautiful. And the beautiful is the good, and therefore, in wanting and desiring the beautiful, love also wants and desires the good

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. .

Love is born into every human being; it calls back the halves of our original nature together; it tries to make one out of two and heal the wound of human nature.

Life must be lived as play, playing certain games, making sacrifices, singing and dancing, and then a man will be able to propitiate the gods, and defend himself against his enemies, and win in the contest.

Life is a short exile

‎ Love is a madness produced by an unclassifiable rational desire to understand the ultimate truth about the world.

Let nobody speak mischief of anybody.

Let the speaker speak truly and the judge decide justly.

Let him take heart who does advance, even in the smallest degree.

Laws are partly formed for the sake of good men, in order to instruct them how they may live on friendly terms with one another, and partly for the sake of those who refuse to be instructed, whose spirit cannot be subdued, or softened, or hindered from plunging into evil.

Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being

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.

Knowledge is the food of the soul.

Knowledge becomes evil if the aim be not virtuous.

Justice, although it resembles a mirage, is really concerned with internal rather than external activity, with the true self and its business.

Just as it would be madness to settle on medical treatment for the body of a person by taking an opinion poll of the neighbors, so it is irrational to prescribe for the body politic by polling the opinions of the people at large.