Quotes to inspire and reflect

I must go beyond the dark world of sense information to the clear brilliance of the sunlight of the outside world. Once done, it becomes my duty to go back to the cave in order to illuminate the minds of those imprisoned in the ‘darkness’ of sensory knowledge.

I perplex others, not because I am clear, but because I am utterly perplexed myself.

I must distinguish between that which always is and never becomes and which is apprehended by reason and reflection, and that which always becomes and never is and is conceived by opinion with the help of sense.

I know not how I may seem to others, but to myself I am but a small child wandering upon the vast shores of knowledge, every now and then finding a small bright pebble to content myself with.

I have a theory that you can make any sentence seem profound by writing the name of a dead philosopher at the end of it.

I have good hope that there is something after death.

I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.

I don't think we shall quarrel about a word the subject of our inquiry is too important for that.

I am smart because I know I nothing.

I am speaking like a book, but I believe that what I am saying is true.

You know that the beginning is the most important part of any work, especially in the case of a young and tender thing; for that is the time at which the character is being formed and the desired impression is more readily taken. Shall we just carelessly allow children to hear any casual tales which may be devised by casual persons, and to receive into their minds ideas for the most part the very opposite of those which we should wish them to have when they are grown up?

I am not given to finding fault, for there are innumerable fools.

How singular is the thing called pleasure, and how curiously related to pain, which might be thought to be the opposite of it; for they never come to a man together, and yet he who pursues either of them is generally compelled to take the other. They are two, and yet they grow together out of one head or stem.

Hope,' he says, 'cherishes the soul of him who lives justice and holiness, and is the nurse of his age and the companion of his journey; hope which is mightiest to sway the restless soul of man.

You ought not to attempt to cure the eyes without the head, or the head without the eyes, so neither ought you to attempt to cure the body without the soul.

You should not honor men more than truth.

He who wishes to serve his country must have not only the power to think, but the will to act

He who refuses to rule is liable to be ruled by one who is worse than himself.

He who can properly define and divide is to be considered a god.

He who is not a good servant will not be a good master.

He could not harm me, for I do not think it is permitted that a better man be harmed by a worse

He that lendeth to another in time of prosperity, shall never want help himself in the time of adversity.

Haven't you noticed that opinion without knowledge is always a poor thing? At the best it is blind—isn't anyone who holds a true opinion without understanding like a blind man on the right road?

Have you not perceived that imitations, whether of bodily gestures, tones of voice, or modes of thought, if they be persevered in from an early age, are apt to grow into habits and a second nature?

Great crimes and pure evil come only from vigorous natures perverted by upbringing; a weak nature never does anything great, good or evil.

Harmony is a symphony, and symphony is an agreement; but an agreement of disagreements while they disagree there cannot be; you cannot harmonize that which disagrees.

God is the cause only of good.

He best keeps from anger who remembers that God is always looking upon him

Friends have all things in common.

For all good and evil, whether in the body or in human nature, originates in the soul, and overflows from thence, as from the head into the eyes.

For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.

Excellence" is not a gift, but a skill that takes practice. We do not act "rightly" because we are "excellent", in fact we achieve "excellence" by acting "rightly".

Evil is the vulgar lover who loves the body rather than the soul, inasmuch as he is not even stable, because he loves a thing which is in itself unstable, and therefore when the bloom of youth which he was desiring is over, he takes wing and flies away, in spite of all his words and promises; whereas the love of the noble disposition is life-long, for it becomes one with the everlasting.

Excellence of understanding comes from something divine, whereas the other excellences are probably close to the body.

Everything desires not like but unlike: for example, the dry desires the moist, the cold the hot, the bitter the sweet, the sharp the blunt, the void the full, the fill the void, and so of all other things; for the opposite is the food of the opposite, whereas receives nothing from like.

Evil is more opposed to the good than to the no-good.

Everyone seeks his half

Everyone thinks because it is solely responsible for the wisdom or folly of his life, that is to say of his destiny.

Even the gods love jokes.

Every king springs from a race of slaves, and every slave had kings among his ancestors.

Eat and drink and sit with the mighty, and make yourself agreeable to them; for from the good you will learn what is good, but if you mix with the bad you will lose the intelligence which you already have.

Either we shall find what it is we are seeking or at least we shall free ourselves from the persuasion that we know what we do not know.

Excellence must be the health and wellbeing of the soul.

Either never, or very seldom, do the quiet actions in life appear to be better than the quick and energetic ones.

Each person must tend to the business that accords with his nature.

Does not every man love that which he deems noble and just and good, and hate the opposite of them? people regard the same things, some as just and others as unjust, about these they dispute; and so there arise wars and fightings among them.

Doesn’t it follow that a ship’s captain or ruler won’t seek and order what is advantageous to himself, but what is advantageous to a sailor?.. No one in any position of rule, insofar as he is a ruler, seeks or orders what is advantageous to himself, but what is advantageous to his subjects; the ones of whom he is himself the craftsman. It is to his subjects and what is advantageous and proper to them that he looks, and everything he says and does he says and does for them.

Don't force your children into your ways, for they were created for a time different from your own.