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.

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

I only know how little I know

I call that man idle who might be better employed.

Through your rags I see your vanity.

You never know a line is crooked unless you have a straight one to put next to it.

One ought not to return injustice, nor do evil to anybody in the world, no matter what one may have suffered from them.