Socrates

Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.

Slanderers do not hurt me because they do not hit me.

The fewer our wants the more we resemble the Gods.

Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior.

To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.

Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.

And when a woman’s will is as strong as the man’s who wants to govern her, half her strength must be concealment.

It is the only sensual pleasure without vice.

But men must know, that in this theatre of man’s life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on.

Let us then try what love can do to mend a broken world.

The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.

I can live for two months on a good compliment.

At the end of my life, with just one breath left, if you come, I’ll sit up and sing.

The subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the senses and understanding.

Nature has always had more force than education.

The artists must be sacrificed to their art. Like the bees, they must put their lives into the sting they give.

The two offices of memory are collection and distribution.

The golden rule is that there are no golden rules.

Is the acorn better than the oak which is its fullness and completion?

Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still.

Choose silence of all virtues, for by it you hear other men’s imperfections, and conceal your own.