"I only wish that wisdom were such a thing as flowed from the fuller to the emptier man, as water does from a full cup to an empty one when we a thread between them."

"But those who obey the rulers it reviles as willing slaves and men of naught, but it commends and honors in public and private rulers who resemble subjects and subjects who are like rulers. Is it not …"

"Which of these two is better only God knows."

"I am a gadfly who God has attached to the state, and all day long and in all places am always fastening upon you, arousing and persuading and reproaching all of you."

"For fear of death is indeed nothing other than to think oneself wise when one is not; for it is to think one knows what one does not know."