“At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.”

“Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.”

“...when he looks at Beauty in the only way that Beauty can be seen - only then will it become possible for him to give birth not to images of virtue (because he's in touch with no images), but to true virtue [arete] (because he is in touch with true Beauty). The love of the gods belongs to anyone who has given to true virtue and nourished it, and if any human being could become immortal, it would be he.”

“Poets utter great and wise things which they do not themselves understand.”

“But of the heaven which is above the heavens, what earthly poet ever did or ever will sing worthily?”

“Always be kind, for everyone is fighting a hard battle.”

“States will never be happy until rulers become philosophers or philosophers become rulers.”