If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.

One should never do wrong in return, nor mistreat any man, no matter how one has been mistreated by him.

If I can assign names as well as pictures to objects, the right assignment of them we may call truth, and the wrong assignment of them falsehood.

Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.

I am quite ready to acknowledge . . . that I ought to be grieved at death, if I were not persuaded that I am going to other gods who are wise and good (of this I am as certain as I can be of any such matters), and to men departed who are better than those whom I leave behind. And therefore I do not grieve as I might have done, for I have good hope that there is yet something remaining for the dead.

I only know that I know nothing

When you propose ridiculous things to believe, too many men will choose to believe nothing at all.