Socrates

Do not do to others what angers you if done to you by others.

I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean.

They are not only idle who do nothing, but they are idle also who might be better employed.

A system of morality which is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception which has nothing sound in it and nothing true.

What a lot of things there are a man can do without.

I am not an Athenian, nor a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

There isn’t a single human characteristic that can be safely labeled as American.

I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.

He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.

If a man constantly aspires is he not elevated?

Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.

The drama’s laws, the drama’s patrons give, for we that live to please, must please to live.

Consequences are unpitying.

Visit the Navy-Yard, and behold a marine, such a man as an American government can make, or such as it can make a man with its black arts – a mere shadow and reminiscence of humanity, a man laid out alive and standing, and already, as one may say, buried under arms with funeral accompaniments.

An honest man is always a child.

Upon retiring, sleep as if you had entered your last sleep. Upon awakening, leave your bed behind you instantly as if you had cast away a pair of old shoes.

Perhaps the most delightful friendships are those in which there is much agreement, much disputation, and yet more personal liking.

I look upon every day to be lost, in which I do not make a new acquaintance.

Strivers achieve what dreamers believe.

In all private quarrels the duller nature is triumphant by reason of dullness.

Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.