"Come then, and let us pass a leisure hour in storytelling, and our story shall be the education of our heroes."
"I used to imagine that no human can make men good; but I know better now."
"That's what education should be ... the art of orientation. Educators should devise the simplest and most effective methods of turning minds around. It shouldn't be the art of implanting sight in the organ, but should proceed on the understanding that the organ already has the capacity, but is improperly aligned and isn't facing the right way."
"Everything that deceives may be said to enchant."
"There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help and what they cannot."
"Of necessity, the most like are most full of envy, strife, and hatred of one another, and the most unlike of friendship. For the poor man is compelled to be the friend of the rich, and the weak requires the aid of the strong, and the sick man of the physician; everyone who knows not has to love and court him who knows."
"A wise man speaks because he has something to say; a fool because he has to say something."
"If there were only some way of contriving that a state or an army should be made up of lovers and their beloved, they would be the very best governors of their own city, abstaining from all dishonor, and emulating one another in honor; and when fighting at each other's side, although a mere handful, they would overcome the world. For what lover would not choose rather to be seen by all mankind than by his beloved, either when abandoning his post or throwing away his arms? He would be ready to die a thousand deaths rather than endure this. Or who would desert his beloved or fail him in the hour of danger?"
"No one ever dies an atheist."
"When men speak ill of thee, live so that nobody will believe them."
