How strange it is that Socrates, after having made the children common, should hinder lovers from carnal intercourse only, but should permit love and familiarities between father and son or between brother and brother, than which nothing can be more unseemly, since even without them love of this sort is improper. How strange, too, to forbid intercourse for no other reason than the violence of the pleasure, as though the relationship of father and son or of brothers with one another made no difference.

The two qualities which chiefly inspire regard and affection are that a thing is your own and that it is your only one.

The law is reason, free from passion.

Man's best friend is one who wishes well to the object of his wish for his sake, even if no one is to know of it.

The antidote for fifty enemies is one friend.

It is just that we should be grateful, not only to those with whose views we may agree, but also to those who have expressed more superficial views; for these also contributed something, by developing before us the powers of thought.

Character is made by many acts; it may be lost by a single one.