Great Throughts Treasury

"A learned man has always riches within himself."

"Aggression unchallenged is aggression unleashed."

"An alliance with a powerful person is never safe."

"An alliance with the powerful is never to be trusted."

"And yet even in reaching for the beautiful there is beauty, and also in suffering whatever it is that one suffers en route."

"But of the heaven which is above the heavens, what earthly poet ever did or ever will sing worthily?"

"Do not leave the riches to men of virtue, but virtue, riches, and all other property, both private and public."

"Everyone is bound to bear patiently the results of his own example."

"Everyone ought to bear patiently the results of his own conduct."

"Gentleness is the antidote for cruelty."

"He justly loses what belongs to himself who covets what belongs to another."

"I would rather not be a king than to forfeit my liberty."

"If anyone comes to the gates of poetry and expects to become an adequate poet by acquiring expert knowledge of the subject without the Muses' madness, he will fail, and his self-controlled verses will be eclipsed by the poetry of men who have been driven out of their minds."

"If men learn this, it will implant forgetfulness in their souls; they will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks. What you have discovered is a recipe not for memory, but for reminder. And it is no true wisdom that you offer your disciples, but only its semblance, for by telling them of many things without teaching them you will make them seem to know much, while for the most part they know nothing, and as men filled, not with wisdom, but with the conceit of wisdom, they will be a burden to their fellows."

"In a change of government the poor change nothing but the name of their masters."

"In a change of masters the poor change nothing except their master's name."

"In outward show so splendid and so vain; 'tis but a gilded block without a brain."

"It is destruction to the weak man to attempt to imitate the powerful."

"It is the part of a fool to give advice to others and not himself to be on his guard."

"Life is nearer every day to death."

"Little people easily find safety in obscurity."

"Love is a serious mental disease."

"Man is a prisoner who has no right to open the door of his prison and run away... A man should wait, and not take his own life until God summons him."

"Men in however high a station ought to fear the humble."

"Nothing is more advantageous to a man than to speak the truth."

"O dear Pan and all the other gods of this place, grant that I may be beautiful inside. Let all my external possessions be in friendly harmony with what is within. May I consider the wise man rich. As for gold, let me have as much as a moderate man could bear and carry with him."

"Only a philosopher's mind grows wings, since its memory always keeps it as close as possible to those realities by being close to which the gods are divine."

"Strangers he gulls, but friends make fun of him."

"Submit to the present evil, lest a greater one befall you."

"Success leads many astray to their ruin."

"Success tempts many to their ruin."

"That only is a disgrace to a man which he has deserved to suffer."

"The bow kept taut will quickly break, kept loosely strung, it will serve you when you need it."

"The humble are in danger when those in power disagree."

"The humble suffer when the mighty disagree."

"The intelligence of few perceives what has been carefully hidden in the recesses of the mind."

"The lovers, indeed, regret the good they have done, once their desire is off. Those who have no love, on the contrary, have never flattering opportunity to repent, because it is not by constraint, but freely, as if they excellently occupied property from their homes that they are, to the extent of their means, good friends. Lovers also consider, and the damage caused to their love interests and largesse they had to make; then adding the trouble they have had, they think long have already paid their loved fair price for favors received. Against by those who are not enamored cannot and excuse the business neglected by love, nor to account past sufferings, nor allege family disputes they have had. Free from all these evils, it remains for them to rush to act in what they believe they must give them pleasure."

"The mind ought sometimes to be amused, that it may the better return to thought, and to itself."

"The mind ought sometimes to be diverted that it may return the better to thinking."

"The only problem with seeing too much is that it makes you insane."

"The success of the wicked is a temptation to many."

"There are two kinds of things the nature of which it would be quite wonderful to grasp by means of a systematic art... the first consists in seeing together things that are scattered about everywhere and collecting them into one kind, so that by defining each thing we can make clear the subject of any instruction we wish to give... [the second], in turn, is to be able to cut up each kind according to its species along its natural joints, and to try not to splinter any part, as a bad butcher might do... Phaedrus, I myself am a lover of these divisions and collections, so that i may be able to think and to speak."

"There is danger in both belief and unbelief."

"Things are not always as they seem; the first appearance deceives many."

"Things are not always what they seem; the first appearance deceives many. The intelligence of a few perceives what has been carefully hidden."

"Those who plot the destruction of others often fall themselves."

"Those who plot the destruction of others often perish in the attempt."

"To add insult to injury."

"Whatever happens must be borne with a calm mind."

"Whoever is detected in a shameful fraud is ever after not believed even if they speak the truth."