Not by lamentations and mournful chants ought we to celebrate the funeral of a good man, but by hymns; for, ion ceasing to be numbered with mortals, he enters upon the heritage of a diviner life. Since he is gone where he feels no pain, let us not indulge in too much grief. The soul is incapable of death. And he, like a bird not long enough in his cage to become attached to it, is free to fly away to a purer air. . . . Since we cherish a trust like this, let our outward actions be in accord with it, and let us keep our hearts pure and our minds calm.

Music, to create harmony, must investigate discord.

Nothing can produce so great a serenity of life as a mind free from guilt and kept untainted, not only from actions, but purposes that are wicked. By this means the soul will be not only unpolluted but also undisturbed. The fountain will run clear and unsullied.

The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits.

Socrates said he was not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

Nor is drunkenness censured for anything so much as its intemperate and endless talk.

The crowns of kings do not prevent those who wear them from being tormented sometimes by violent headaches.