He who without the Muse's madness in his soul comes knocking at the door of poesy and thinks that art will make him anything fit to be called a poet, finds that the poetry which he indites in his sober senses is beaten hollow by the poetry of madmen.

The race of the guardians must be kept pure.

Boys should abstain from all use of wine until their eighteenth year, for it is wrong to add fire to fire.

For this feeling of wonder shows that you are a philosopher, since wonder is the only beginning of philosophy.

Between knowledge of what really exists and ignorance of what does not exist lies the domain of opinion. It is more obscure than knowledge, but clearer than ignorance.

May I do to others as I would that they should do unto me.

The cause of all sins in every case lies in the person's excessive love of self.