The love of the gods belongs to anyone who has given to true virtue and nourished it, and if any human being could become immortal, it would be he.

When you swear, swear seriously and solemnly, but at the same time with a smile, for a smile is the twin sister of seriousness.

Everything that deceives does so by casting a spell.

No one knows whether death is really the greatest blessing a man can have, but they fear it is the greatest curse, as if they knew well.

I will prove by my life that my critics are liars.

Complacent ignorance is the most lethal sickness of the soul

But this is not difficult, O Athenians! to escape death; but it is much more difficult to avoid depravity, for it runs swifter than death. And now I, being slow and aged, am overtaken by the slower of the two; but my accusers, being strong and active, have been overtaken by the swifter, wickedness. And now I depart, condemned by you to death; but they condemned by truth, as guilty of iniquity and injustice: and I abide my sentence, and so do they. These things, perhaps, ought so to be, and I think that they are for the best.