Entire ignorance is not so terrible or extreme an evil, and is far from being the greatest of all.

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.

If you ask: What is the good of education? The answer is easy: Education makes good men and good men act nobly.

The soul should concentrate itself by itself.

All well bred men should have mastered the art of singing and dancing.

Is it not true that the clever rogue is like the runner who runs well for the first half of the course, but flags before reaching the goal: he is quick off the mark, but ends in disgrace and slinks away crestfallen and uncrowned. The crown is the prize of the really good runner who perseveres to the end.

In particular I may mention Sophocles the poet, who was once asked in my presence, How do you feel about love, Sophocles? are you still capable of it? to which he replied, Hush! if you please: to my great delight I have escaped from it, and feel as if I had escaped from a frantic and savage master. I thought then, as I do now, that he spoke wisely. For unquestionably old age brings us profound repose and freedom from this and other passions.