"There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance."

"For I do believe that I have been sent by God to the city as a gadfly to a great and noble horse which is rather sluggish because of its size and needs to be stirred up by a gadfly."

"The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our separate ways, I to die, and you to live. Which of these two is better only God knows."

"I examined the poets, and I look on them as people whose talent overawes both themselves and others, people who present themselves as wise men and are taken as such, when they are nothing of the sort."

"I will obey the god rather than you, and as long as I draw breath and am able, I shall not cease to practice philosophy."