...And when one of them meets the other half, the actual half of himself, whether he be a lover of youth or a lover of another sort, the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy and one will not be out of the other's sight, as I may say, even for a moment...

Excess generally causes reaction, and produces a change in the opposite direction, whether it be in the seasons, or in individuals, or in governments.

The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men.

They certainly give very strange names to diseases.

A poet, you see, is a light thing, and winged and holy, and cannot compose before he gets inspiration and loses control of his senses and his reason has deserted him.

And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul.