If you wish to be good, first believe that you are bad.

First tell yourself what you want to be, then do what you need to do.

It was the first and most striking characteristic of Socrates never to become heated in discourse, never to utter an injurious or insulting word -- on the contrary, he persistently bore insult from others and thus put an end to the fray.

If you would be good, first believe you are bad.