"No one punishes the evil-doer under the notion, or for the reason, that he has done wrong. Only the unreasonable fury of a beast acts in that way. But he who desires to inflict rational punishment does not retaliate for a past wrong, for that which is done cannot be undone, but he has regard to the future, and is desirous that the man who is punished, and he who sees him punished, may be deterred from doing wrong again."
"It is only the dead who have seen the end of war."
"Old age has a great sense of calm and freedom. When the passions have relaxed their hold and have escaped, not from one master, but from many."
"All the gold which is under or upon the earth is not enough to give in exchange for virtue."
"By such reflections and by the continuance in them of a divine nature, the qualities which we have described grew and increased among them; but when the divine portion began to fade away, and became diluted too often and too much with the mortal admixture, and the human nature got the upper hand, they then, being unable to bear their fortune, behaved unseemly, and to him who had an eye to see grew visibly debased, for they were losing the fairest of their precious gifts; but to those who had no eye to see the true happiness, they appeared glorious and blessed at the very time when they were full of avarice and unrighteous power."
"I perplex others, not because I am clear, but because I am utterly perplexed myself."
"The key is not to live but to live well."
"By harming a horse, you decrease his excellence. Thus, by harming a person, you decrease their excellence."
"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 life without investigation is not worth living."
