The rulers of the state are the only persons who ought to have the privilege of lying, either at home or abroad; they may be allowed to lie for the good of the state.

No law or ordinance is mightier than understanding.

All men are by nature equal, made all of the same earth by one Workman; and however we deceive ourselves, as dear unto God is the poor peasant as the mighty prince.

Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety.

It is right to give every man his due.

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.

They certainly give very strange names to diseases.

Attention to health is life greatest hindrance.

Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.

The good is the beautiful.

All the gold which is under or upon the earth is not enough to give in exchange for virtue.

The most important part of education is proper training in the nursery.

The most virtuous are those who content themselves with being virtuous without seeking to appear so.

When the mind is thinking it is talking to itself.

Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.

Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself.

Excess of liberty, whether it lies in state or individuals, seems only to pass into excess of slavery.

I have hardly ever known a mathematician who was capable of reasoning.

The curse of me and my nation is that we always think things can be bettered by immediate action of some sort, any sort rather than no sort.

I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.

Knowledge is true opinion.

Excess generally causes reaction, and produces a change in the opposite direction, whether it be in the seasons, or in individuals, or in governments.

Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence.

Hardly any human being is capable of pursuing two professions or two arts rightly.

The excessive increase of anything causes a reaction in the opposite direction.

Any man may easily do harm, but not every man can do good to another.

No man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nature and education.

If particulars are to have meaning, there must be universals.

Truth is the beginning of every good to the gods, and of every good to man.

This City is what it is because our citizens are what they are.

We ought to esteem it of the greatest importance that the fictions which children first hear should be adapted in the most perfect manner to the promotion of virtue.

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

Philosophy is the highest music.

The learning and knowledge that we have, is, at the most, but little compared with that of which we are ignorant.

The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile.

He who is not a good servant will not be a good master.

Injustice is censured because the censures are afraid of suffering, and not from any fear which they have of doing injustice.

No one ever teaches well who wants to teach, or governs well who wants to govern.

Death is not the worst that can happen to men.

For the introduction of a new kind of music must be shunned as imperiling the whole state; since styles of music are never disturbed without affecting the most important political institutions.

Virtue is relative to the actions and ages of each of us in all that we do.

Apply yourself both now and in the next life. Without effort, you cannot be prosperous. Though the land be good, You cannot have an abundant crop without cultivation.

To prefer evil to good is not in human nature; and when a man is compelled to choose one of two evils, no one will choose the greater when he might have the less.

Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue.

States are as the men, they grow out of human characters.

He was a wise man who invented beer.

Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.

Tyranny naturally arises out of democracy.

It is clear to everyone that astronomy at all events compels the soul to look upwards, and draws it from the things of this world to the other.