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A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life. The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us — and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic.

— Darwin's Autobiography, 1876

The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together.

— Meditations, Book VI

It is easier to find men who will volunteer to die, than to find those who are willing to endure pain with patience. Experience is the teacher of all things.

— Caesar, De Bello Civili

Beauty is a short-lived tyranny. Be as you wish to seem. Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people.

— Attributed to Socrates

Egypt is not merely a province. It is the breadbasket of the world, the jewel of the Nile. Those who forget this do so at their peril.

— Historical records, Ptolemaic court

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent — it is the one most responsive to change. I have spent thirty years in evidence of this.

— On the Origin of Species, 1859

Man is by nature a political animal. A man who lives outside a city-state is either a beast or a god — and I have met very few gods.

— Politics, Book I

Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one. The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit; the second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.

— Meditations, Book X

Veni, vidi, vici. I came, I saw, I conquered. There are moments in history that demand brevity — today was one of them.

— Plutarch, Life of Caesar — after the Battle of Zela

The unexamined life is not worth living. To simply exist, breathing and eating and sleeping, without once questioning what it all means — that is not life. That is merely survival.

— Plato, Apology — Trial of Socrates

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.

— Nicomachean Ethics

I will not be triumphed over. I am the daughter of a hundred kings and queens — Alexandria bends to no Roman procession while I still draw breath.

— Plutarch, Life of Antony

You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realise this, and you will find strength. The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.

— Meditations, Book V

I know that I know nothing. Yet it is precisely this awareness of my own ignorance that distinguishes me — for it is the beginning of wisdom.

— Plato, Apology