Solon quotes:
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I grow old learning something new every day.
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Rich people without wisdom and learning are but sheep with golden fleeces.
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In giving advice seek to help, not to please, your friend.
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Society is well governed when its people obey the magistrates, and the magistrates obey the law.
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Laws are like spiders webs which, if anything small falls into them they ensnare it, but large things break through and escape.
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Watch well each separate citizen, Lest having in his heart of hearts A secret spear, one still may come Saluting you with cheerful face, And utter with a double tongue The feigned good wishes of his wary mind.
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Let no man be called happy before his death. Till then, he is not happy, only lucky.
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Put more trust in nobility of character than in an oath.
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A half truth is the worst of all lies,because it can be defended in partiality.
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True blessedness consisteth in a good life and a happy death.
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Call no man happy until he is dead.
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Seek to learn constantly while you live; do not wait in the faith that old age by itself will bring wisdom.
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Angels are winged with God's power.
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Consider your honour, as a gentleman, of more weight than an oath.
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Each day grow older, and learn something new;
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Honors achieved far exceed those that are created.
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I grow old, ever learning many things.
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In all things let reason be your guide.
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An unlucky rich man is more capable of satisfying his desires and of riding out disaster when it strikes, but a lucky man is better off than him...He is the one who deserves to be described as happy. But until he is dead, you had better refrain from calling him happy, and just call him fortunate.
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count no man happy until he be dead.
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He that will sell his fame will also sell the public interest.
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As I grow older, I constantly learn more.
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As the Deity has given us Greeks all other blessings in moderation, so our moderation gives us a kind of wisdom which is timid, in all likelihood, and fit for common people, not one which is kingly and splendid. This wisdom, such as it is, observing that human life is ever subject to all sorts of vicissitudes, forbids us to be puffed up by the good things we have, or to admire a man's felicity while there is still time for it to change.
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Chide a friend in private and praise him in public.
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For often evil men are rich, and good men poor; But we will not exchange with them Our virtue for their wealth since one abides always, While riches change their owners every day.
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He who has learned how to obey will know how to command.
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If all men were to bring their miseries together in one place, most would be glad to take each his own home again rather than take a portion out of the common stock.
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If things are going well, religion and legislation are beneficial; if not, they are of no avail.
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If through your vices you afflicted are, Lay not the blame of your distress on God; You made your rulers mighty, gave them guards, So now you groan 'neath slavery's heavy rod.
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In all things that you do, consider the end.
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In the ideal State laws are few and simple, because they have been derived from certainties. In the corrupt State laws are many and confused, because they have been derived from uncertainties.
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Justice, even if slow, is sure.
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Know thyself. [Lat., Ne quis nimis. (From the Greek)]
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Laws are like spider's webs: If some poor weak creature comes up against them, it is caught; but a big one can break through and get away.
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Learn to obey before you command.
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Many evil men are rich, and good men poor, but we shall not exchange with them our excellence for riches.
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Men keep agreements when it is to the advantage of neither to break them.
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Men keep their agreements when it is an advantage to both parties not to break them; and I shall so frame my laws that it will be evident to the Athenians that it will be for their interest to observe them.
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Men keep their engagements when it is an advantage to both parties not to break them.
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No fool can be silent at a feast.
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No man is happy; he is at best fortunate.
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No more good must be attempted than the nation can bear
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Often the wicked prosper, while the righteous starve; yet I would never exchange my state for theirs, my virtue for their gold. For mine endures, while riches change their owner every day.
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Poets tell many lies.
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Pure chastity is beauty to our souls, grace to our bodies, and peace to our desires.
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Reprove your friend privately, commend him publicly.
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Rule, after you have first learned to submit to rule.
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Satiety comes of riches and contumaciousness of satiety.
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Say nothing but good of the dead.
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Speech is the mirror of action.
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That city in which those who are not wronged, no less than those who are wronged, exert themselves to punish the wrongdoers.
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The ideal state is that in which an injury done to the least of its citizens is an injury done to all.
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To make an empire durable, the magistrates must obey the laws and the people the magistrates.
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We can have justice whenever those who have not been injured by injustice are as outraged by it as those who have been.
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Wealth breeds satiety, satiety outrage.
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Wealth I desire to have; but wrongfully to get it, I do not wish.
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What thou seest, speak of with caution.