There's a victory and defeat-the first and best of victories, the lowest and worst of defeats-which each man gains or sustains at the hands not of another, but of himself.

A wise man speaks because he has something to say; a fool because he has to say something.

Even the good artisans fell into the same error as the poets; because they were good workmen they thought that they also knew all sorts of high matters, and this defect in them overshadowed their wisdom.

True opinions are a fine thing and do all sorts of good so long as they stay in their place; but they will not stay long. They run away from a man's mind, so they are not worth much until you tether them by working out the reason. Once they are tied down, they become knowledge, and are stable.

No intelligent man will ever be so bold as to put into language those things which his reason has contemplated.

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

You cannot conceive the many without the one...The study of the unit is among those that lead the mind on and turn it to the vision of reality.