“One who is injured ought not to return the injury, for on no account can it be right to do an injustice; and it is not right to return an injury, or to do evil to any man, however much we have suffered from him.”

A man who really fights for justice must lead a private, not a public, life if he is to survive for even a short time.

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.

It is better to change an opinion than to persist in a wrong one.

When you want wisdom and insight as badly as you want to breathe, it is then you shall have it.

Mankind is made of two kinds of people: wise people who know they’re fools, and fools who think they are wise.

Wealth does not bring about excellence, but excellence makes wealth and everything else good for men, both individually and collectively.

God would seem to indicate to us and not allow us to doubt that these beautiful poems are not human, or the work of man, but divine and the work of God; and that the poets are only the interpreters of the Gods.

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

To fear death, gentlemen, is no other than to think oneself wise when one is not, to think one knows what one does not know.

Are you not ashamed of caring so much for the making of money and for fame and prestige, when you neither think nor care about wisdom and truth and the improvement of your soul?

To move the world we must move ourselves.

I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.

Those who are hardest to love need it the most.

No one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all blessings for a man, yet men fear it as if they knew it was the greatest of evils.

He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.

Be as you wish to seem.

As long as the government’s actions are secret, it cannot be held accountable. A government for the people and by the people should be transparent to the people.

Going home must be like going to render an account.

Everything must be taken into account. If the fact will not fit the theory—let the theory go.

I always take the audience into account.

Educate yourself, hold the people around you accountable, seek ways to help, and don’t sit on the sidelines.

Sometimes you gotta take accountability for the way you feel no matter what a person puts you through.

On account of being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter what it does.

Money doesn’t mean anything to me. I’ve made a lot of money, but I want to enjoy life and not stress myself building my bank account.