The first key to greatness is to be in reality what we appear to be.

But already it is time to depart, for me to die, for you to go on living; which of us takes the better course, is concealed from anyone except God.

The unexamined life is not worth living.

When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.

The comic and the tragic lie inseparably close, like light and shadow.

'Wars, factions, and fighting,' said Socrates as he looked forward from his last hour, 'have no other origin than this same body and its lusts... We must set the soul free from it; we must behold things as they are. And having thus got rid of the foolishness of the body, we shall be pure and hold converse with the pure, and shall in our own selves have complete knowledge of the Incorruptible which is, I take it, no other than the very truth.

Is there anyone to whom you entrust a greater number of serious matters than your wife? And is there anyone with whom you have fewer conversations?