"Is it true; is it kind, or is it necessary?"

"Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down."

"An unconsidered life is not one worth living."

"Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued."

"It is better to change an opinion than to persist in a wrong one."

"Do you feel no compunction, Socrates, at having followed a line of action which puts you in danger of the death penalty?' I might fairly reply to him, 'You are mistaken, my friend, if you think that a man who is worth anything ought to spend his time weighing up the prospects of life and death. He has only one thing to consider in performing any action--that is, whether he is acting rightly or wrongly, like a good man or a bad one."

"Life contains but two tragedies. One is not to get your heart's desire; the other is to get it."

"Through your rags I see your vanity."

"As to marriage or celibacy, let a man take which course he will, he will be sure to repent."

"I did not care for the things that most people care about– making money, having a comfortable home, high military or civil rank, and all the other activities, political appointments, secret societies, party organizations, which go on in our city . . . I set myself to do you– each one of you, individually and in private– what I hold to be the greatest possible service. I tried to persuade each one of you to concern himself less with what he has than with what he is, so as to render himself as excellent and as rational as possible."

"Neither in war nor yet at law ought any man to use every way of escaping death. For often in battle there is no doubt that if a man will throw away his arms, and fall on his knees before his pursuers, he may escape death; and in other dangers there are other ways of escaping death, if a man is willing to say and do anything. The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness; for that runs faster than death."

"Do you feel no compunction, Socrates, at having followed a line of action which puts you in danger of the death penalty?' I might fairly reply to him, 'You are mistaken, my friend, if you think that a man who is worth anything ought to spend his time weighing up the prospects of life and death. He has only one thing to consider in performing any action--that is, whether he is acting rightly or wrongly, like a good man or a bad one."

"My friend...care for your psyche...know thyself, for once we know ourselves, we may learn how to care for ourselves"

"Envy is the ulcer of the soul."

"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."

"Be as you wish to seem."

"Be of good cheer about death, and know this of a truth, that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death."

"Be nicer than necessary to everyone you meet. Everyone is fighting some kind of battle."

"How many things can I do without?"

"Are you not ashamed of caring so much for the making of money and for fame and prestige, when you neither think nor care about wisdom and truth and the improvement of your soul?"