It's like this, I think: the excellence of a good body doesn't make the soul good, but the other way around: the excellence of a good soul makes the body as good as it can be.

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

And the first step, as you know, is always what matters most, particularly when we are dealing with those who are young and tender. That is the time when they are taking shape and when any impression we choose to make leaves a permanent mark.

The beginning is the chiefest part of any work.

A man is not learned until he can read, write and swim.

Thus rhetoric, it seems, is a producer of persuasion for belief, not for instruction in the matter of right and wrong ... And so the rhetorician's business is not to instruct a law court or a public meeting in matters of right and wrong, but only to make them believe.

People are like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die.