Society and the World

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.

Knowledge becomes evil if the aim be not virtuous.

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.

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.

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

Justice will only exist where those not affected by injustice are filled with the same amount of indignation as those offended.

It seems to me that many fall into it even against their will, and fancy they are discussing, when they are merely debating, because they cannot distinguish the meanings of a term, in their investigation of any question, but carry on their opposition to what is stated, by attacking the mere words, employing the art of debate, and not that of philosophical discussion.

It is the task of the enlightened not only to ascend to learning and to see the good but to be willing to descend again to those prisoners and to share their troubles and their honors, whether they are worth having or not. And this they must do, even with the prospect of death.

It is the task of the enlightened not only to ascend to learning and to see the good but to be willing to descend again to those prisoners and to share their troubles and their honors, whether they are worth having or not. And this they must do, even with the prospect of death.

It is only just that anything that up on its own should feel it has nothing to repay for an upbringing which it owes no one.

It is only the dead who have seen the end of war.

It is impossible to improve the world if first the man does not improve.

It is by justice, that we can authenticate a man's value or nullity, the absence of justice, is the absence of what makes him man.

It is by justice, that we can authenticate a man's value or nullity, the absence of justice, is the absence of what makes him man.

It is a common saying, and in everybody's mouth, that life is but a sojourn. The learning and knowledge that we have, is, at the most, but little compared with that of which we are ignorant.

It behooves those who take the young to task to leave them room for excuse, lest they drive them to be hardened by too much rebuke.

Isn't it a bad thing to be deceived about the truth, and a good thing to know what the truth is?

Is there anything worse for a state than to be split and disunited? or better than cohesion and unity?

Is there anything worse for a state than to be split and disunited? or better than cohesion and unity?

Is there any self-existent fire? and do all those things which we call self-existent exist? or are only those things which we see, or in some way perceive through the bodily organs, truly existent, and nothing whatever besides them? And is all that which we call an intelligible essence nothing at all, and only a name?

In politics we presume that everyone who knows how to get votes knows how to administer a city or a state. When we are ill… we do not ask for the handsomest physician, or the most eloquent one.