"The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms."

"Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions; but those who kindly reprove thy faults."

"May the inward and outward man be as one."

"Is there not one true coin for which all things ought to exchange?- and that is wisdom; and only in exchange for this, and in company with this, is anything truly bought or sold, whether courage, temperance or justice. And is not all true virtue the companion of wisdom, no matter what fears or pleasures or other similar goods or evils may or may not attend her? But the virtue which is made up of these goods, when they are severed from wisdom and exchanged with one another, is a shadow of virtue only, nor is there any freedom or health or truth in her; but in the true exchange there is a purging away of all these things, and temperance, and justice, and courage, and wisdom herself, are a purgation of them."

"Give me beauty in the inward soul; may the outward and the inward man be at one."

"True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us."

"Through your rags I see your vanity."

"The highest realms of thought are impossible to reach without first attaining an understanding of compassion."

"And so they grow richer and richer, and the more they think of making a fortune the less they think of virtue; for when riches and virtue are placed together in the scales of the balance, the one always rises as the other falls."

"Neither in war nor yet at law ought any man to use every way of escaping death. For often in battle there is no doubt that if a man will throw away his arms, and fall on his knees before his pursuers, he may escape death; and in other dangers there are other ways of escaping death, if a man is willing to say and do anything. The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness; for that runs faster than death."

"Beware the barrenness of a busy life."

"The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms."

"I do believe that there are gods, and in a far higher sense than that in which any of my accusers believe in them."

"If a man comes to the door of poetry untouched by the madness of the Muses, believing that technique alone will make him a good poet, he and his sane compositions never reach perfection, but are utterly eclipsed by the performances of the inspired madman."

"One who is injured ought not to return the injury, for on no account can it be right to do an injustice; and it is not right to return an injury, or to do evil to any man, however much we have suffered from him."

"Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued."

"An unconsidered life is not one worth living."

"The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new."

"For the poet is a light and winged and holy thing, and there is no invention in him until he has been inspired and is out of his senses, and the mind is no longer in him: when he has not attained to this state, he is powerless and is unable to utter his oracles."

"Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions; but those who kindly reprove thy faults."