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.

My advice to you is get married: if you find a good wife you.

The beginning of wisdom is a definition of terms.

Whom do I call educated? First, those who manage well the circumstances they encounter day by day. Next, those who are decent and honorable in their intercourse with all men, bearing easily and good naturedly what is offensive in others and being as agreeable and reasonable to their associates as is humanly possible to be… those who hold their pleasures always under control and are not ultimately overcome by their misfortunes… those who are not spoiled by their successes, who do not desert their true selves but hold their ground steadfastly as wise and sober — minded men.

The comic and the tragic lie inseparably close, like light and shadow.

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.

I do not like work even when someone else does it.

Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get.

An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.

Laughter is the greatest weapon we have and we, as humans, use it the least.

Every hero becomes a bore at last.

A cynic can chill and dishearten with a single word.

It is difficult, if not impossible, for most people to think otherwise than in the fashion of their own period.

The only gift is a portion of thyself.

Let the people think they govern and they will be governed.

Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of change: the change itself is nothing; when we have made it, the next wish is to change again.

We are all alike, on the inside.

Every old poem is sacred.

Why was the human race created? Or at least why wasn’t something creditable created in place of it? God had His opportunity. He could have made a reputation. But no, He must commit this grotesque folly – a lark which must have cost Him a regret or two when He came to think it over and observe effects.

The worst solitude is to have no real friendships.

Important encounters are planned by the souls long before the bodies see each other.