"This alone is to be feared: the closed mind, the sleeping imagination, the death of spirit.,."

"What shall we say about those spectators, then, who can see a plurality of beautiful things, but not beauty itself, and who are incapable of following if someone else tries to lead them to it, and who can see many moral actions, but not morality itself, and so on? That they only ever entertain beliefs, and do not know any of the things they believe?"

"If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools."