Socrates

By all means marry. If you get a good wife you will become happy, and if you get a bad one you will become a philosopher.

Crito, I owe a cock to Asclepius; will you remember to pay the debt?

I was really too honest a man to be a politician and live.

The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.

Whom do I call educated? First, those who manage well the circumstances they encounter day by day. Next, those who are decent and honorable in their intercourse with all men, bearing easily and good naturedly what is offensive in others and being as agreeable and reasonable to their associates as is humanly possible to be… those who hold their pleasures always under control and are not ultimately overcome by their misfortunes… those who are not spoiled by their successes, who do not desert their true selves but hold their ground steadfastly as wise and sober — minded men.

By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you’ll be happy. If you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher… and that is a good thing for any man.

There is no sincerer love than the love of food.

To cease smoking is the easiest thing I ever did. I ought to know, I’ve done it a thousand times.

The price of greatness is responsibility.

Lies are sufficient to breed opinion, and opinion brings on substance.

There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart’s desire. The other is to get it.

I don’t think it’s meant for man to know everything at once.

Use every distraction as an object of meditation and they cease to be distractions.

Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody reads.

You should read history and look at ostracism, persecution, martyrdom, and that kind of thing. They always happen to the best men, you know.

Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.

All conservatives are such from personal defects. They have been effeminated by position or nature, born halt and blind, through luxury of their parents, and can only, like invalids, act on the defensive.

Human beings must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.

In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.

He who praises everybody, praises nobody.

Who has not felt the beauty of a woman’s arm? The unspeakable suggestions of tenderness that lie in the dimpled elbow, and all the varied gently-lessening curves, down to the delicate wrist, with its tiniest, almost imperceptible nicks in the firm softness.