“In the ideal State laws are few and simple, because they have been derived from certainties. In the corrupt State laws are many and confused, because they have been derived from uncertainties.”

Justice, even if slow, is sure.

As I grow older, I constantly learn more.

Wealth I desire to have; but wrongfully to get it, I do not wish.

Pure chastity is beauty to our souls, grace to our bodies, and peace to our desires.

To make an empire durable, the magistrates must obey the laws and the people the magistrates.

Let no man be called happy before his death. Till then, he is not happy, only lucky.

In all things let reason be your guide.

True blessedness consisteth in a good life and a happy death.

No more good must be attempted than the nation can bear.

Watch well each separate citizen, Lest having in his heart of hearts A secret spear, one still may come Saluting you with cheerful face, And utter with a double tongue The feigned good wishes of his wary mind.

Men keep their agreements when it is an advantage to both parties not to break them; and I shall so frame my laws that it will be evident to the Athenians that it will be for their interest to observe them.

The ideal state is that in which an injury done to the least of its citizens is an injury done to all.

Society is well governed when its people obey the magistrates, and the magistrates obey the law.

In all things that you do, consider the end.

Consider your honour, as a gentleman, of more weight than an oath.

Often the wicked prosper, while the righteous starve; yet I would never exchange my state for theirs, my virtue for their gold. For mine endures, while riches change their owner every day.

Never confuse movement with progress. Because you can run in place and not get anywhere.

A smile or a tear has no nationality; joy and sorrow speak alike to all nations, and they, above all the confusion of tongues, proclaim the brotherhood of man.

If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.

I would warn you that I do not attribute to nature either beauty or deformity, order or confusion. Only in relation to our imagination can things be called beautiful or ugly, well-ordered or confused.

Religion is a system of wishful illusions together with a disavowal of reality, such as we find nowhere else but in a state of blissful hallucinatory confusion. Religion’s eleventh commandment is “Thou shalt not question.

I am in a charming state of confusion.

I never said most of the things I said. Then again, I might have said ’em, but you never know.

You have to systematically create confusion, it sets creativity free. Everything that is contradictory creates life