By polluting clear water with slime you will never find good drinking water.

He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.

In war, truth is the first casualty.

Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times.

There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief.

Zeus, first cause, prime mover; for what thing without Zeus is done among mortals?

It is an easy thing for one whose foot is on the outside of calamity to give advice and to rebuke the sufferer.

Better to die on your feet than live on your knees.

The air is Zeus, Zeus earth, and Zeus the heaven, Zeus all that is, and what transcends them all.

For there is no defense for a man who, in the excess of his wealth, has kicked the great altar of Justice out of sight.

I have learned to hate all traitors, and there is no disease that I spit on more than treachery.

Always go after the girl. No matter what she says. Chase her.

A mother! What are we worth really? They all grow up whether you look after them or not.

Life never gives us what we want at the moment that we consider appropriate.

Our prejudices are so deeply rooted that we never think of them as prejudices but call them common sense.

At sixty a man has passed most of the reefs and whirlpools....That man has awakened to a new youth....Ergo, he is young.

I think it takes a long time, as you get older, to realize just how crazy the world is, just how ridiculous it all is.

Perpetual aiming at wit is a very bad part of conversation. It is done to support a character: it generally fails; it is a sort of insult on the company, and a restraint upon the speaker.

A wise man fights to win, but he is twice a fool who has no plan for possible defeat.

Courage to be who you are is the cousin of loving the Divine, yourself and others.

People must insist on the right to say no, to be alone, to stand out from the herd. Creative artists can say all this in their own way and in their own field, by hard, rigorous work.