"Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and political greatness and wisdom meet in one, and those commoner natures who pursue either to the exclusion of the other are compelled to stand aside, cities will never have rest from their evils — no, nor the human race, as I believe — and then only will this our State have a possibility of life and behold the light of day."

"An empty vessel makes the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers."

"Love is of the beautiful, and therefore has not the beautiful. And the beautiful is the good, and therefore, in wanting and desiring the beautiful, love also wants and desires the good."

"A library of wisdom, is more precious than all wealth, and all things that are desirable cannot be compared to it. Whoever therefore claims to be zealous of truth, of happiness, of wisdom or knowledge, must become a lover of books."

"We are twice armed if we fight with faith."

"Without any one teaching him he will recover his knowledge for himself, if he is only asked questions."

"The greatest wealth is to live content with little."

"Similarly with regard to truth, won't we say that a soul is maimed if it hates a voluntary falsehood, cannot endure to have one in itself, and is greatly angered when it exists in others, but is nonetheless content to accept an involuntary falsehood, isn't angry when it is caught being ignorant, and bears its lack of learning easily, wallowing in it like a pig?"

"The wise man will want to be ever with him who is better than himself."

"No knowledge considers or prescribes for the advantage of the stronger, but for that of the weaker, which it rules."

"Philosophers are the ones who can reach what always stays the same in every respect, and non- philosophers the ones who cannot, who wonder among the many things that go in every direction."

"I must distinguish between that which always is and never becomes and which is apprehended by reason and reflection, and that which always becomes and never is and is conceived by opinion with the help of sense."

"The madness of love is the greatest of heaven's blessings."

"The whole life of the philosopher is a preparation for death."

"Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety."

"Old age has a great sense of calm and freedom. When the passions have relaxed their hold and have escaped, not from one master, but from many."

"The only real ill-doing is the deprivation of knowledge."

"Laws are partly formed for the sake of good men, in order to instruct them how they may live on friendly terms with one another, and partly for the sake of those who refuse to be instructed, whose spirit cannot be subdued, or softened, or hindered from plunging into evil."

"Is not the love of learning identical with a philosophical disposition?"

"If one has made a mistake, and fails to correct it, one has made a greater mistake."