Plato

The beginning is the most important part of the work.

Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.

Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.

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

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

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

No matter how carefully you plan your goals they will never be more than pipe dreams unless you pursue them with gusto.

It is very strange, and very melancholy, that the paucity of human pleasures should persuade us ever to call hunting one of them.

For it is not possible to join serpentine wisdom with columbine innocency, except men know exactly all the conditions of the serpent: his baseness and going upon his belly, his volubility and lubricity, his envy and sting, and the rest; that is, all forms and natures of evil: for without this, virtue lieth open and unfenced.

O Lord, help me not to despise or oppose what I do not understand.

My way of joking is to tell the truth. It’s the funniest joke in the world.

Acorns were good until bread was found.

Want is a growing giant whom the coat of Have was never large enough to cover.

The billiard table is better than the doctor.

Argue for your limitations and, sure enough, they’re yours.

As to the adjective, when in doubt strike it out.

There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern.

It were better to be of no church, than to be bitter for any.

He that thinks he can afford to be negligent is not far from being poor.

George Washington, as a boy, was ignorant of the commonest accomplishments of youth. He could not even lie.

Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.