"I did not care for the things that most people care about– making money, having a comfortable home, high military or civil rank, and all the other activities, political appointments, secret societies, party organizations, which go on in our city . . . I set myself to do you– each one of you, individually and in private– what I hold to be the greatest possible service. I tried to persuade each one of you to concern himself less with what he has than with what he is, so as to render himself as excellent and as rational as possible."

"The hottest love has the coldest end."

"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."

"I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think"

"Man's greatest privilege is the discussion of virtue."

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

"I honor and love you: but why do you who are citizens of the great and mighty nation care so much about laying up the greatest amount of money and honor And reputation, and so little amount wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul? Re you not ashamed of these?... I do nothing but go about persuading you all, not to take thought for your persons and your properties, but first and chiefly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul. I tell you that virtue is not given by more, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of man."

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

"Beauty is a short-lived tyranny"

"How can you wonder your travels do you no good, when you carry yourself around with you?"

"And in knowing that you know nothing makes you the smartest of all."

"He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god."

"I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled [poets] to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean."

"As to marriage or celibacy, let a man take which course he will, he will be sure to repent."

"Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down."

"My friend...care for your psyche...know thyself, for once we know ourselves, we may learn how to care for ourselves"

"In all of us, even in good men, there is a lawless wild-beast nature, which peers out in sleep."

"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."

"In all of us, even in good men, there is a lawless wild-beast nature, which peers out in sleep."

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