For among other things he had been counseled to bring me to love knowledge and duty by my own choice, without forcing my will, and to educate my soul entirely through gentleness and freedom.

Socrates thought and so do I that the wisest theory about the gods is no theory at all.

Just as in habiliments it is a sign of weakness to wish to make oneself noticeable by some peculiar and unaccustomed fashion, so, in language, the quest for new-fangled phrases and little-known words comes from a puerile and pedantic ambition.

I have here only made a nosegay of culled flowers, and have brought nothing of my own but the thread that tied them together.

Death, they say, acquits us of all obligations.

How many condemnations I have witnessed more criminal than the crime!

Take care that old age does not wrinkle your spirit even more than your face.