The orators and the despots have the least power in their cities ... since they do nothing that they wish to do, practically speaking, though they do whatever they think to be best.

When the mind is thinking it is talking to itself.

The qualities of number appear to lead to the apprehension of truth.

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.

I was stupid enough to think that we ought to speak the truth about each person eulogised, and to make this the foundation, and from these truths to choose the most beautiful things and arrange them in the most elegant way; and I was quite proud to think how well I should speak, because I believed that I knew the truth.

So the nature required to make a really noble Guardian of our commonwealth will be swift and strong, spirited, and philosophic.

And when one of them meets the other half, the actual half of himself, whether he be a lover of youth or a lover of another sort, the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy and one will not be out of the other's sight, as I may say, even for a moment.