"Men say that everyone is naturally a lover of himself, and that it is right that it should be so. This is a mistake; for in fact the cause of all the blunders committed by man arises from this excessive self-love. For the lover is blinded by the object loved, so that he passes a wrong judgment upon what is just, good, and beautiful, thinking that he ought always to honor what belongs to himself, in preference to truth. For he who intends to be a great man ought to love neither himself nor his own things, but only what is just, whether it happens to be done by himself or by another."

"To go to the world below, having a soul which is like a vessel full of injustice, is the last and worst of all the evils."

"The people always have some champion whom they set over them and nurse into greatness. This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears, he is a protector."

"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."

"A work well begun is half ended."

"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."

"We shall be better and braver and less helpless if we think that we ought to enquire, than we should have been if we indulged in the idle fancy that there was no knowing and no use in seeking to know what we do not know;— that is a theme upon which I am ready to fight, in word and deed, to the utmost of my power."

"A man ought not to return evil for evil, as many think, since at no time ought we to do an injury to our neighbor."

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

"Necessity is the mother of invention."