For not by art does the poet sing, but by power divine. Had he learned by rules of art, he would have known how to speak not of one theme only, but of all; and therefore God takes away the minds of poets, and uses them as his ministers, as he also uses diviners and holy prophets, in order that we who hear them may know them to be speaking not of themselves who utter these priceless words in a state of unconsciousness, but that God himself is the speaker, and that through them he is conversing with us.

Wisdom is a blaze, kindled by a leaping spark.

Is there anything worse for a state than to be split and disunited? or anything better than cohesion and unity?

The cure of many diseases is unknown to physicians because they are ignorant of the whole... For the part can never be well unless the whole is well.

The one who learns and learns and doesn't practice is like the one who plows and plows and never plants.

That a guardian should require another guardian to take care of him is ridiculous indeed.

For it is obvious to everybody, I think, that this study [of astronomy] compels the soul to look upward and leads it away from things here to higher things.