Socrates

Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.

True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.

I must first know myself, as the Delphian inscription says; to be curious about that which is not my concern, while I am still in ignorance of my own self, would be ridiculous. And therefore I bid farewell to all this; the common opinion is enough for me. For, as I was saying, I want to know not about this, but about myself: am I a monster more complicated and swollen with passion than the serpent Typho, or a creature of a gentler and simpler sort, to whom Nature has given a diviner and lowlier destiny?

The hottest love has the coldest end.

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

By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.

Breed is stronger than pasture.

Perhaps man is the only being that can properly be called idle.

A picture is a poem without words.

Rebellions of the belly are the worst.

He who has made it a practice to lie and deceive his father, will be the most daring in deceiving others.

If a better system is thine, impart it; if not, make use of mine.

Named must your fear be before banish it you can.

We should always have three friends in our lives-one who walks ahead who we look up to and follow; one who walks beside us, who is with us every step of our journey; and then, one who we reach back for and bring along after we’ve cleared the way.

The ancestor of every action is a thought.

Treating your adversary with respect is giving him an advantage to which he is not entitled.

A friend is one who incessantly pays us the compliment of expecting from us all the virtues, and who can appreciate them in us. The friend asks no return but that his friend will religiously accept and wear and not disgrace his apotheosis of him. They cherish each other’s hopes. They are kind to each other’s dreams.

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.

Nothing is too high for the daring of mortals: we storm heaven itself in our folly.

How can what an Englishman believes be hearsay? It is a contradiction in terms.

Our minds want clothes as much as our bodies.