Do you suppose that I should have lived as long as I have if I had moved in the sphere of public life, and conducting myself in that sphere like an honorable man, had always upheld the cause of right, and conscientiously set this end above all other things? Not by a very long way, gentlemen; neither would any other man.

It seems that God took away the minds of poets that they might better express His.

The real artist, who knew what he was imitating, would be interested in realities and not in imitations; and would desire to leave as memorials of himself works many and fair; and, instead of being the author of encomiums, he would prefer to be the theme of them.

The alphabet will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls. They will trust the written characters and not remember themselves.

It is not difficult to avoid death. It is much more difficult to avoid wickedness, for it runs faster than death.

If a man is proud of his wealth, he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it.

Ordinary people seem not to realize that those who really apply themselves in the right way to philosophy are directly and of their own accord preparing themselves for dying and death.