I am that gadfly which God has attached to the state, and all day long and in all places am always fastening upon you, arousing and persuading and reproaching you.

Prefer knowledge to wealth, for the one is transitory, the other perpetual.

I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.

When you want wisdom and insight as badly as you want to breathe, it is then you shall have it.

Beauty comes first. Victory is secondary. What matters is joy.

Are not all things which have opposites generated out of their opposites?

I will not yield to any man contrary to what is right, for fear of death, even if I should die at once for not yielding.