"For the poet is a light and winged and holy thing, and there is no invention in him until he has been inspired and is out of his senses, and the mind is no longer in him: when he has not attained to this state, he is powerless and is unable to utter his oracles."
"He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature."
"God takes away the minds of poets, and uses them as his ministers, as he also uses diviners and holy prophets, in order that we who hear them may know them to be speaking not of themselves who utter these priceless words in a state of unconsciousness, but that God himself is the speaker, and that through them he is conversing with us."
"The unexamined life is not worth living."
"Be of good cheer about death, and know this of a truth, that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death."
"Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel."