He is not only idle who does nothing, but he is idle who might be better employed.

Be as you wish to seem.

The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.

Wisdom begins in wonder.

The nearest way to glory is to strive to be what you wish to be thought to be.

Let him that would move the world first move himself.

Are you not ashamed of caring so much for the making of money and for fame and prestige, when you neither think nor care about wisdom and truth and the improvement of your soul?

To fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise, without being wise: for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For anything that men can tell, death may be the greatest good that can happen to them: but they fear it as if they knew quite well that it was the greatest of evils. And what is this but that shameful ignorance of thinking that we know what we do not know?

I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.

Nature has given us two ears, two eyes, and but one tongue-to the end that we should hear and see more than we speak.

Virtue does not come from wealth, but. . . wealth, and every other good thing which men have. . . comes from virtue.

A system of morality which is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception which has nothing sound in it and nothing true.

He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have

Serenity, regularity, absence of vanity,Sincerity, simplicity, veracity, equanimity, Fixity, non-irritability, adaptability, Humility, tenacity, integrity, nobility, magnanimity, charity, generosity, purity. Practise daily these eighteen "ities" You will soon attain immortality.

If thou continuest to take delight in idle argumentation thou mayest be qualified to combat with the sophists, but will never know how to live with men.

I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.

I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean.

He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.

False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.

Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.