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

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

"Most men in power become villains."

"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."

"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."

"No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth."

"Beholding beauty with the eye of the mind, he will be enabled to bring forth, not images of beauty, but realities (for he has hold not of an image but of a reality), and bringing forth and nourishing true virtue to become the friend of God and be immortal, if mortal man may."

"The only real ill-doing is the deprivation of knowledge."

"He who commits injustice is ever made more wretched than he who suffers it."