"There is, in my view, the birth of society that each of us, far from being sufficient to itself, on the contrary need a large number of people."

"Our love for our children springs from the soul's greatest yearning for immortality."

"The worst type of man behaves as badly in his waking life as some men do in their dreams."

"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."

"I thought to myself: I am wiser than this man; neither of us probably knows anything that is really good, but he thinks he has knowledge, when he has not, while I, having no knowledge, do not think I have.,."

"The only real ill-doing is the deprivation of knowledge."

"Life must be lived as play, playing certain games, making sacrifices, singing and dancing, and then a man will be able to propitiate the gods, and defend himself against his enemies, and win in the contest."

"No wealth can ever make a bad man at peace with himself."

"An empty vessel makes the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers."

"Take a look around, then, and see that none of the uninitiated are listening. Now by the uninitiated I mean the people who believe in nothing but what they can grasp in their hands, and who will not allow that action or generation or anything invisible can have real existence."

"Knowledge becomes evil if the aim be not virtuous."

"False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil."

"Friends have all things in common."

"In practice people who study philosophy too long become very odd birds, not to say thoroughly vicious; while even those who are the best of them are reduced by. philosophy to complete uselessness as members of society."

"It is a common saying, and in everybody's mouth, that life is but a sojourn. The learning and knowledge that we have, is, at the most, but little compared with that of which we are ignorant."

"As it is, the lover of inquiry must follow his beloved wherever it may lead him."

"Complacent ignorance is the most lethal sickness of the soul."

"Think only of the ambition of men, and you will wonder at the senselessness of their ways, unless you consider how they are stirred by the love of an immortality of fame. They are ready to run all risks greater far than they would have run for their children, and to spend money and undergo any sort of toil, and even to die, for the sake of leaving behind them a name which shall be eternal."

"Let nobody speak mischief of anybody."

"For all good and evil, whether in the body or in human nature, originates in the soul, and overflows from thence, as from the head into the eyes."