Apollonius of Tyana

Virtue comes by nature, learning, and practice, and thanks to virtue, all of the aforesaid may deserve approval. ”

Do not consider that to be wealth which is hoarded away, for how is it better than sand gathered from the nearest heap? Nor that which comes in from men who groan at their taxes: for the gold that is wrung from tears is of base alloy and black. ”

In my judgment, excellence and wealth are direct opposites, since when the one shrinks, the other grows, and when one grows, the other shrinks. ”

I asked certain rich men if they felt embittered. 'How could we not?' they said. So I asked them what caused this anguish. They blamed their wealth. ”

You need not wonder at my knowing all human languages; for, to tell you the truth, I also understand all the secrets of human silence. ”

All the earth is mine, and I have a right to go all over it and through it. ”

I pray as follows: May justice reign, may the laws not be broken, may the wise men be poor, and the poor men rich, without sin. ”

Never may a man prone to believe scandal be a despot or a popular leader! Under his guidance, democracy itself will be despotism. ”

Just as an individual of pre-eminent worth transforms democracy into a monarchy of the best man, even so the rule of one man, if in all things it has an eye to the common welfare, is democracy. ”

Plato said that virtue has no master. If a person does not honor this principle and rejoice in it, but is purchasable for money, he creates many masters for himself. ”