Creation is man's immortality and brings him nearest to the gods.

Only the extremely ignorant or the extremely intelligent can resist change.

If you can do only a little. Do what you can. What you cannot enforce, do not command.

They are not only idle who do nothing, but they are idle also who might be better employed.

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.

In my investigation in the service of the god I found that those who had the highest reputation were nearly the most deficient, while those who were thought to be inferior were more knowledgeable.

I desire only to know the truth, and to live as well as I can...And, to the utmost of my power, I exhort all other men to do the same...I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly conflict.