"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."

"Beauty is certainly a soft, smooth, slippery thing, and therefore of a nature which easily slips in and permeates our souls."

"I used to imagine that no human can make men good; but I know better now."

"God is the cause only of good."

"Knowledge is the food of the soul."

"By harming a horse, you decrease his excellence. Thus, by harming a person, you decrease their excellence."

"He that lendeth to another in time of prosperity, shall never want help himself in the time of adversity."

"Any man may easily do harm, but not every man can do good to another."

"Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul."

"Character is simply habit long continued."

"A work well begun is half ended."

"Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed, by the masses."

"The body is the tomb of the soul."

"Wonder is the only beginning of philosophy."

"Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being."

"Love is a good poet and accomplished in all the fine arts; for no one can give to another that which he has not himself, or teach that of which he has no knowledge. Who will deny that the creation of the animals is his doing? Are they not all the works of his wisdom, born and begotten of him? And as to the artists, do we not know that he only of them whom love inspires has the light of fame?"

"Every king springs from a race of slaves, and every slave had kings among his ancestors."

"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."