Mob rule and emasculation of the wise' and 'who will watch the guardians'?

And all knowledge, when separated from justice and virtue, is seen to be cunning and not wisdom; wherefore make this your first and last and constant and all-absorbing aim, to exceed, if possible, not only us but all your ancestors in virtue; and know that to excel you in virtue only brings us shame, but that to be excelled by you is a source of happiness to us.

Wherefore also these Kinds [elements] occupied different places even before the universe was organised and generated out of them. Before that time, in truth, all these were in a state devoid of reason or measure, but when the work of setting in order this Universe was being undertaken, fire and water and earth and air, although possessing some traces of their known nature, were yet disposed as everything is likely to be in the absence of God; and inasmuch as this was then their natural condition, God began by first marking them out into shapes by means of forms and numbers.

The more the pleasures of the body fade away, the greater to me is the pleasure and charm of conversation.

All knowledge is but remembrance.

Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.

And what do you say of lovers of wine... they are glad of any pretext of drinking any wine