No one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all blessings for a man, yet men fear it as if they knew it was the greatest of evils.

A man who really fights for justice must lead a private, not a public, life if he is to survive for even a short time.

The true champion of justice, if he intends to survive even for a short time, must necessarily confine himself to private life and leave politics alone.

...[R]eal wisdom is the property of God, and... human wisdom has little or no value.

...[S]ome of the opinions which people entertain should be respected, and others should not.

I am convinced that I never wrong anyone intentionally...

Wealth does not bring about excellence, but excellence makes wealth and everything else good for men, both individually and collectively.

...[M]en are put in a sort of guard-post, from which one must not release one's self or run away...

...[T]he really important thing is not to live, but to live well... [a]nd to live well means the same thing as to live honourably or rightly...

Do you imagine that a city can continue to exist and not be turned upside down, if the legal judgments which are pronounced in it have no force but are nullified and destroyed by private persons?

...a good man cannot be harmed either in life or in death, and that his affairs are not neglected by the gods.

....the perfect beauty of the pattern that each raindrop makes as it joins its puddle.

Sometimes it gets talked about as if life is all about the individual, and I don't think it is. I'm really interested in what writing can contribute to a kind of cultural intelligence.

As a former cop, I respect and appreciate those who've dedicated their lives to serving others as well as those who appreciate the rule of law and honor it.

Life is filled with abstractions, and the only way to make heads or tails of it is going through intuition.

The Evangelical party in the Church of Scotland will lay all flat if they be not prevented.

If these were my last moments on earth, I’d spend them fighting to save him with everything I had. If our roles were reversed, I knew he’d do the same".

Error is to truth as sleep is to waking. I have observed that one turns, as if refreshed, from error back to truth.

I have known the fruits of strikes. The bitter and the sweet. Hunger and music.

Many of us write because we are readers and have grown up in a long tradition, and we want to be able to add to that extraordinary flow of interpretations of the world.

The aim of poetry and the poet is finally to be of service, to ply the effort of the individual into the larger work of the community as a whole.