Socrates

True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.

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

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.

If a man is proud of his wealth, he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it.

Crito, I owe a cock to Asclepius; will you remember to pay the debt?

By all means marry. If you get a good wife you will become happy, and if you get a bad one you will become a philosopher.

A man sits as many risks as he runs.

A Judge may be a farmer; but he is not to geld his own pigs. A Judge may play a little at cards for his own amusement; but he is not to play at marbles, or chuck farthing in the Piazza.

It is easy – terribly easy – to shake a man’s faith in himself. To take advantage of that to break a man’s spirit is devil’s work.

We live thick and are in each other’s way, and stumble over one another, and I think we thus lose some respect for one another.

There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart’s desire. The other is to get it.

A stumbling block to the pessimist is a stepping-stone to the optimist.

Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success.

We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace.

Every one goes astray, but the least imprudent are they who repent the soonest.

We have only now, only this single eternal moment opening and unfolding before us, day and night.

Whether he knew it or not, the life he lived was his penance. Punishing himself, for what he believes are his sins. Consciously or subconsciously, he creates the world he lives in. Never believing that he is deserving happiness, deserving joy. His self-destructive nature, in his eyes, and his eyes only, is justified. Everyone is deserving absolution, but he needs to understand, that he is the only one able to forgive himself.

The future is purchased by the present.

All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.

Labor diligently to increase your property.

The ancients recommended us to sacrifice to the Graces, but Milton sacrificed to the Devil.