"The souls of people, on their way to Earth-life, pass through a room full of lights; each takes a taper, often only a spark, to guide it in the dim country of this world. But some souls, by rare fortune, are detained longer, have time to grasp a handful of tapers, which they weave into a torch. These are the torch-bearers of humanity, its poets, seers, and saints, who lead and lift the race out of darkness, toward the light. They are the law-givers and saviors, the light-bringers, way-showers and truth-tellers, and without them, humanity would lose its way in the dark."

"No one is a friend to his friend who does not love in return."

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

"If you are wise, all men will be your friends and kindred, for you will be useful."

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

"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."

"The State which we have founded must possess the four cardinal virtues of wisdom, courage, discipline and justice ... Justice is the principle which has in fact been followed throughout, the principle of one man one job, of minding ones own business, in the sense of doing the job for which one is naturally fitted and not interfering with other people."

"The greatest wealth is to live content with little."

"This feeling of wonder shows that you are a philosopher, since wonder is the only beginning of philosophy."

"But of the heaven which is above the heavens, what earthly poet ever did or ever will sing worthily?"