Socrates

"From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate."

"Ordinary people merely think how they shall spend their time; a man of talent tries to use it."

"The masses have never thirsted after truth. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim."

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

"How could I fear age? What have I to do with it? My body? But I have nothing to do with my body. My property? I have nothing to do with property."

"False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil."

"I am a midwife of men's thoughts."

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

"No word or action of a good man can be accidental."

"When desire is on one side and reason on the other, a wise man chooses the rational course."

"The greatest blessing of mankind is freedom of thought."

"Once we perceive something as true, we naturally behave in accordance with that truth."

"It is an irony that Socrates, one of the founders of Western philosophy, chose never to write anything."

"Piety requires us to honor truth above our friends."

"Wars and revolutions and battles are due simply and solely to the body and the bodily desires."

"The unexamined life, I say, is not, and cannot possibly be, lived by a human being."

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."

"Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, but the highest form of intelligence."

"I cast away as wholly vain the belief that what I am told is true."

"The fewer our wants, the nearer we resemble the Gods."

"And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul."

"Let him that would move the world first move himself."

"Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions."

"Understanding a question is half an answer."

"Wonder is the beginning of all philosophy."

"Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness."

"The way to succeed is to double your failure rate."

"The only thing that is constant is change."

"To be is to do."