The investigation of the meaning of words is the beginning of education.

One should attend to one's enemies, for they are the first persons to detect one's errors.

Virtue is the same for a man and for a woman.

Count all wickedness foreign and alien.

Being asked what learning is the most necessary, he replied, "How to get rid of having anything to unlearn.

Pay attention to your enemies, for they are the first to discover your mistakes.

Wealth and poverty do not lie in a person's estate, but in their souls.

I have enough to eat till my hunger is stayed, to drink till my thirst is sated; to clothe myself withal; and out of doors not Callias there, with all his riches, is more safe than I from shivering; and when I find myself indoors, what warmer shirting do I need than my bare walls? what ampler greatcoat than the tiles above my head?

There is no work so mean, but it would amply serve me to furnish me with sustenance.

It is better to fight with a few good men against all the wicked, than with many wicked men against a few good men.

Ill repute is a good thing and much the same as pain.

Once, when he was applauded by rascals, he remarked, "I am horribly afraid I have done something wrong."

I'd rather be mad than feel pleasure.

It is a royal privilege to do good and be ill spoken of.

Antisthenes ... said once to a youth from Pontus who was on the point of coming to him to be his pupil, and was asking him what things he wanted, "You want a new book, and a new pen, and a new tablet;"

It is better to fall in with crows than with flatterers; for in the one case you are devoured when dead, in the other case while alive.

Antisthenes ... was asked on one occasion what learning was the most necessary, and he replied, "To unlearn one's bad habits."

When he was asked what advantage had accrued to him from philosophy, his answer was, "The ability to hold converse with myself."

States are doomed when they are unable to distinguish good men from bad.

As iron is eaten away by rust, so the envious are consumed by their own passion.

To all my friends without distinction I am ready to display my opulence: come one, come all; and whosoever likes to take a share is welcome to the wealth that lies within my soul.