wealth does not bring goodness, but goodness brings wealth and every other blessing, both to the individual and to the state

When desire, having rejected reason and overpowered judgment which leads to right, is set in the direction of the pleasure which beauty can inspire . . .

If measure and symmetry are absent from any composition in any degree, ruin awaits both the ingredients and the composition... Measure and symmetry are beauty and virtue the world over.

Just as you ought not to attempt to cure eyes without head or head without body, so you should not treat body without soul.

Knowing thyself is the height of wisdom.

I am a citizen, not of Athens, or Greece, but of the world.

The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they alone knew everything and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with them. As for girls, they are forward, immodest and unwomanly in speech, behaviour and dress.