Living well and beautifully and justly are all one thing.

Wealth does not bring about excellence (aka areté), but excellence (aka areté) brings about wealth and all other public and private blessings for men.

Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.

It is never right to do wrong or to requite wrong with wrong, or when we suffer evil to defend ourselves by doing evil in return.

Admitting one's ignorance is the first step in acquiring knowledge.

I soon realized that poets do not compose their poems with knowledge, but by some inborn talent and by inspiration, like seers and prophets who also say many fine things without any understanding of what they say.

The beginning is the most important part, especially when dealing with anything young and tender.