He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.

Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.

Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.

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

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

I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.

Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.

Do not do to others what angers you if done to you by others.

How many things I have no need of! That is what Socrates often said, according to Diogenes Laertius, when looking at a mass of things for sale.

Remember, no human condition is ever permanent. Then you will not be overjoyed in good fortune nor too scornful in misfortune.

Get not your friends by bare compliments, but by giving them sensible tokens of your love.

Could I climb to the highest place in Athens, I would lift my voice and proclaim, "Fellow citizens, why do you turn and scrape every stone to gather wealth, and take so little care of your children to whom one day you must relinquish it all?"

The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be; and if we observe, we shall find, that all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice of them.

I was really too honest a man to be a politician and live.

In every one of us there are two ruling and directing principles, whose guidance we follow wherever they may lead; the one being an innate desire of pleasure; the other, an acquired judgment which aspires after excellence.

I realized that it was not by wisdom that poets write their poetry, but by a kind of nature or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets; for these also say many beautiful things, but do not know anything of what they say.

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.

Crito, I owe a cock to Asclepius; will you remember to pay the debt? Plato's famous account of the trial and death of Socrates.

The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways — I to die and you to live. Which is the better, only God knows. Plato's famous account of the trial and death of Socrates.

If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.

If my life is to be prolonged now, I know that I must live out my old age, seeing worse, hearing less, learning with more difficulty, and forgetting more and more of what I have learned. If I see myself growing worse and reproach myself for it, tell me, how could I continue to live pleasantly? Perhaps even the god in his kindness is offering to end my life not only at the right time, but also in the easiest way possible... Plato's famous account of the trial and death of Socrates.