Isocrates Quotes
Of all our possessions, wisdom alone is immortal.
Isocrates (Letter to Demonicus)
To teach is to learn twice.
Isocrates (Ad Doemonicum)
The generality of men know no criterion of truth, but are led by popular opinion.
Isocrates (Letter to Demonicus)
Value not yourself upon the greatness of your riches, but the rational use of them.
Isocrates (Letter to Demonicus)
Never emulate those who gain by injustice.
Isocrates (Letter to Demonicus)
It is the duty of every man to improve his knowledge, will and understanding.
Isocrates (Letter to Demonicus)
We have the justest value of health, when we remember the pains that attend sickness.
Isocrates (Letter to Demonicus)
The noblest worship is to make yourself as good and as just as you can.
Isocrates
Wicked men hurt their friends as readily as their enemies.
Isocrates (Letter to Demonicus)
The love and praise of the public is preferable to accumulated riches.
Isocrates (Letter to Demonicus)
If you be a lover of instruction, you will be well instructed.
Isocrates (Ad Doemonicum)
A good mind is the greatest treasure in a man's body.
Isocrates (Letter to Demonicus)
Whetstones are not themselves able to cut, but make iron sharp and capable of cutting.
Isocrates
Riches are rather the instruments of vice, than the friends of virtue, as they give loose reins to luxury.
Isocrates (Letter to Demonicus)
The bad show kindness to their friends only when present; but the good love them, though absent.
Isocrates (Letter to Demonicus)
It is not fitting that the evil produced by men should be imputed to things; let those bear the blame who make an ill use of things in themselves good.
Isocrates
Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs; therefore avoid undue elation in prosperity, or undue depression in adversity.
Isocrates
Never imagine you can conceal a bad action; for, though you hide it from others, your own conscience will condemn you.
Isocrates (Letter to Demonicus)
Make no man a friend before inquiring how he has treated his former friends; expect him to behave to you as he has behaved to them.
Isocrates (Letter to Demonicus)
It is virtue alone, which, if once not only rooted, but brought to perfection in the mind, bears the fruit of glory in old age.
Isocrates (Letter to Demonicus)
Be satisfied with the present; but have in view what is better.
Isocrates (Letter to Demonicus)
Judge of your friends in the misfortunes of your life, and their voluntary sharing of your burden and danger: for we prove gold by fire; but we know best our real friends in distress and affliction.
Isocrates (Letter to Demonicus)
Praise is the beginning of friendship, as dispraise is of enmity.
Isocrates (Letter to Demonicus)
When a secret is comitted to you, keep it more religously than you would gold and silver entrusted with you.
Isocrates (Letter to Demonicus)
Be not austere and gloomy, but serene and grave: by the first behaviour you would be thought proud; but, by the latter, will be esteemed a man of worth and credit.
Isocrates (Letter to Demonicus)
When you design to ask any one's advice, consider how he has acted in his own behalf.
Isocrates (Letter to Demonicus)
Aim at immortality by your heroic actions; but let your conduct be so prudent, that you never become forgetful of mortality.
Isocrates (Letter to Demonicus)
Choose rather honesty poverty, than dishonest riches, as the latter only profits the possessor in life, but the first crowns the very dead with fame and glory.
Isocrates (Letter to Demonicus)
Try to be in your body a lover of toil, and in your soul a lover of wisdom, that with the one you may be able to execute your resolves, and with the other may know how to foresee what is expedient.
Isocrates (Letter to Demonicus)
For just as we see the bee settling on all blossoms and sipping what is best from each, so ought those who strive after education to have some knowledge of everything, and to collect what is profitable from every side.
Isocrates (Letter to Demonicus)
