Plato

Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another.

Music gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and charm and gaiety to life.

The beginning is the most important part of the work.

Democracy, which is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.

What a poor appearance the tales of poets make when stripped of the colours which music puts upon them, and recited in simple prose.

Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.

Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter.

It is a brave thing to have courage to be an individual; it is also, perhaps, a lonely thing. But it is better than not being an individual, which is to be nobody at all.

There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.

That which we call sin in others, is experiment for us.

There are still many causes worth sacrificing for, so much history yet to be made.

We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom.

Today, you can decide to walk in freedom. You can choose to walk differently. You can walk as a free person, enjoying every step.

I never thought much of the courage of a lion tamer. Inside the cage he is at least safe from people.

I was a freethinker before I knew how to think.

You must not suppose, because I am a man of letters, that I never tried to earn an honest living.

Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen.

Why is it that we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person involved.

All the arguments which are brought to represent poverty as no evil show it evidently to be a great evil.

True irreverence is disrespect for another man’s god.

The true charm of pedestrianism does not lie in the walking, or in the scenery, but in the talking. The walking is good to time the movement of the tongue by, and to keep the blood and the brain stirred up and active; the scenery and the woodsy smells are good to bear in upon a man an unconscious and unobtrusive charm and solace to eye and soul and sense; but the supreme pleasure comes from the talk.