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.

Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.

Living or dead, to a good man there can come no evil.

True perfection is a bold quest to seek. Only the willing and true of heart will seek the betterment of many.

Whenever any one informs us that he has found a man who knows all the arts, and all things else that anybody knows, and every single thing with a higher degree of accuracy than any other man - whoever tells us this, I think that we can only imagine him to be a simple creature who is likely to have been deceived by some wizard or actor whom he met, and whom he thought all-knowing, because he himself was unable to analyse the nature of knowledge and ignorance and imitation.

To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.

Thou shouldst eat to live; not live to eat.