“He who wishes to serve his country must have not only the power to think, but the will to act.”

One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.

The greatest wealth is to live content with little.

There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.

No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.

Poets utter great and wise things which they do not themselves understand.

There is truth in wine and children.

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.

Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.

The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself.

There is in every one of us, even those who seem to be most moderate, a type of desire that is terrible, wild, and lawless.

I would teach children music, physics, and philosophy; but most importantly music, for the patterns in music and all the arts are the keys to learning.

The philosopher whose dealings are with divine order himself acquires the characteristics of order and divinity.

Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being.

Man is a prisoner who has no right to open the door of his prison and run away. A man should wait, and not take his own life until God summons him.

Philosophy is the highest music.

Time is the moving image of reality.