Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.

The measure of a man is what he does with power.

There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.

A hero is born among a hundred, a wise man is found among a thousand, but an accomplished one might not be found even among a hundred thousand men.

When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them.

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

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

We do not learn; and what we call learning is only a process of recollection.

Ignorance of all things is an evil neither terrible nor excessive, nor yet the greatest of all; but great cleverness and much learning, if they be accompanied by a bad training, are a much greater misfortune.

I would fain grow old learning many things.

There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.

The beginning is the most important part of the work.

Courage is a kind of salvation.

We are twice armed if we fight with faith.

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.

Life must be lived as play.