Socrates

When desire, having rejected reason and overpowered judgment which leads to right, is set in the direction of the pleasure which beauty can inspire, and when again under the influence of its kindred desires it is moved with violent motion towards the beauty of corporeal forms, it acquires a surname from this very violent motion, and is called love.

I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.

Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.

See one promontory, one mountain, one sea, one river and see all.

Remember, no human condition is ever permanent. Then you will not be overjoyed in good fortune nor too scornful in misfortune.

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.

Passion is a sort of fever in the mind, which ever leaves us weaker than it found us.

One thing life has taught me: if you are interested, you never have to look for new interests. They come to you. When you are genuinely interested in one thing, it will always lead to something else.

The martyr cannot be dishonored. Every lash inflicted is a tongue of fame; every prison a more illustrious abode.

Some men are born to own, and can animate all their possessions. Others cannot: their owning is not graceful; seems to be a compromise of their character: they seem to steal their own dividends.

Part of her mystery is how she is calm in the storm and anxious in the quiet.

Courage is not the absence of fear, but the capacity to act despite our fears.

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Common sense is the best distributed thing in the world, for we all think we possess a good share of it.

Be careless in your dress if you will, but keep a tidy soul.

Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind.

Forget and forgive. This is not difficult when properly understood. It means forget inconvenient duties, then forgive yourself for forgetting. By rigid practice and stern determination, it comes easy.

You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.

We are always paid for our suspicion by finding what we suspect.

As men’s prayers are a disease of the will, so are their creeds a disease of the intellect.

After a few months’ acquaintance with European coffee, one’s mind weakens, and his faith with it, and he begins to wonder if the rich beverage of home, with its clotted layer of yellow cream on top of it, is not a mere dream after all, and a thing which never existed.