An emperor knows how to govern when poets are free to make verses, people to act plays, historians to tell the truth, ministers to give advice, the poor to grumble at taxes, students to learn lessons aloud, workmen to praise their skill and seek work, people to speak of anything, and old men to find fault with everything.

Who will dare to write a history of human goodness?

In the end, nothing is lost. Every event, for good or evil, has effects forever.

A civilization is born Stoic and dies Epicurean.

If I were rich I would have many books, and I would pamper myself with bindings bright to the eye and soft to the touch, paper generously opaque, and type such as men designed when printing was very young. I would dress my gods in leather and gold, and burn candles of worship before them at night, and string their names like beads on a string.

The past is not dead. Indeed, it is often not even past.

Education is the transmission of civilization.