The end of life is to be like God, and the soul following God will be like Him.

I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.

Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean.

I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.

He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.

He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy.

Beauty is the bait which with delight allures man to enlarge his kind.

True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.

The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.

By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.

Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.

No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death. He and his are not neglected by the gods.

Ordinary people seem not to realize that those who really apply themselves in the right way to philosophy are directly and of their own accord preparing themselves for dying and death.

The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.

I only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity for doing harm; then they might have an unlimited power for doing good.

To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.

Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.

Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued.

The unexamined life is not worth living.