There is also a third kind of madness, which is possession by the Muses, enters into a delicate and virgin soul, and there inspiring frenzy, awakens lyric... But he, who, not being inspired and having no touch of madness in his soul, comes to the door and thinks he will get into the temple by the help of art - he, I say, and his poetry are not admitted; the sane man is nowhere at all when he enters into rivalry with the madman.

I shall assume that your silence gives consent.

There must always remain something that is antagonistic to good.

There are three arts which are concerned with all things: one which uses, another which makes, and a third which imitates them.

And when one of them meets the other half, the actual half of himself, whether he be a lover of youth or a lover of another sort, the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy and one will not be out of the other's sight, as I may say, even for a moment.

Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable.

It behooves those who take the young to task to leave them room for excuse, lest they drive them to be hardened by too much rebuke.