“those who govern ought not to be lovers of the task? For, if they are, there will be rival lovers, and they will fight.”

“So where it is a general rule that it is wrong to gratify lovers, this can be attributed to the defects of those who make that rule: the government's lust for rule and the subjects' cowardice”

“There are three classes of men; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain.”

“Then the lover, who is true and no counterfeit, must of necessity be loved by his love.”

“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.”

“Then we shan’t regard anyone as a lover of knowledge or wisdom who is fussy about what he studies…”

“There is no such thing as a lover's oath. ”