Philosopher Quotes

Nature, more of a stepmother than a mother in several ways, has sown a seed of evil in the hearts of mortals, especially in the more thoughtful men, which makes them dissatisfied with their own lot and envious of another s.

The desire to write grows with writing.

Prevention is better than cure.

If you keep thinking about what you want to do or what you hope will happen, you don't do it, and it won't happen.

Nowadays the rage for possession has got to such a pitch that there is nothing in the realm of nature, whether sacred or profane, out of which profit cannot be squeezed.

Concealed talent brings no reputation.

To know nothing is the happiest life.

A nail is driven out by another nail. Habit is overcome by habit.

Women, can't live with them, can't live without them.

No one respects a talent that is concealed.

There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other.

When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.

In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself.

The time when most of you should withdraw into yourself is when you are forced to be in a crowd.

Riches do not exhilarate us so much with their possession as they torment us with their loss.

Misfortune seldom intrudes upon the wise man; his greatest and highest interests are directed by reason throughout the course of life.

Justice... is a kind of compact not to harm or be harmed.

Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempest.

It is possible to provide security against other ills, but as far as death is concerned, we men live in a city without walls.

The misfortune of the wise is better than the prosperity of the fool.

The greater the difficulty, the more the glory in surmounting it.

I would rather be first in a little Iberian village than second in Rome.

It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and well and justly. And it is impossible to live wisely and well and justly without living a pleasant life.

I never desired to please the rabble. What pleased them, I did not learn; and what I knew was far removed from their understanding.

A free life cannot acquire many possessions, because this is not easy to do without servility to mobs or monarchs.

If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.

It is folly for a man to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to obtain by himself.

Of all the things which wisdom provides to make us entirely happy, much the greatest is the possession of friendship.

The art of living well and the art of dying well are one.