"All knowledge, when separated from justice and virtue, is seen to be cunning and not wisdom."

"I must go beyond the dark world of sense information to the clear brilliance of the sunlight of the outside world. Once done, it becomes my duty to go back to the cave in order to illuminate the minds of those imprisoned in the ‘darkness’ of sensory knowledge."

"Ideas are the source of all things."

"The most virtuous are those who content themselves with being virtuous without seeking to appear so."

"Knowledge becomes evil if the aim be not virtuous."

"An accomplished one might not be found even among a hundred thousand men."

"A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers."

"Most men in power become villains."

"He who can properly define and divide is to be considered a god."

"The like is not the friend of the like in as far as he is like; still the good may be the friend of the good in as far as he is good."

"For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories."

"To the rulers of the state then, if to any, it belongs of right to use falsehood, to deceive either enemies or their own citizens, for the good of the state: and no one else may meddle with this privilege.,."

"No one ever teaches well who wants to teach, or governs well who wants to govern."

"The true order of going, or being led by another, to the things of love, is to begin from the beauties of earth and mount upwards for the sake of that other beauty, using these steps only, and from one going on to two, and from two to all fair forms to fair practices, and from fair practices to fair notions, until from fair notions he arrives at the notion of absolute beauty, and, at last, knows what the essence of beauty is."

"I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing."