Plato Quotes

Wise men speak because they have something to say

Many are the thyrsus-bearers, but few are the mystics.

Who are the true philosophers? Those whose passion is to love the truth.

The wisest have the most authority.

All I really know is the extent of my own ignorance

Our object in the construction of the state is the greatest happiness of the whole, and not that of any one class.

Remember how in that communion only, beholding beauty with the eye of the mind, he will be enabled to bring forth, not images of beauty, but realities (for he has hold not of an image but of a reality), and bringing forth and nourishing true virtue to become the friend of God and be immortal, if mortal man may.

For not by art does the poet sing, but by power divine. Had he learned by rules of art, he would have known how to speak not of one theme only, but of all; and therefore God takes away the minds of poets, and uses them as his ministers, as he also uses diviners and holy prophets, in order that we who hear them may know them to be speaking not of themselves who utter these priceless words in a state of unconsciousness, but that God himself is the speaker, and that through them he is conversing with us.

Pepper is small in quantity and great in virtue.

We are bound to our bodies like an oyster to its shell.

God ever geometrizes.

You ought not to heal the body without the soul, for this is the great error of our day in treating the human body.

And so, when a person meets the half that is his very own, whatever his orientation, whether it's to young men or not, then something wonderful happens: the two are struck from their senses by love, by a sense of belonging to one another, and by desire, and they don't want to be separated from one another, not even for a moment.

Music is moral law. It is the essence of order and leads to all that is good, true and beautiful.

Can any man be courageous who has the fear of death in him?

The elements of instruction should be presented to the mind in childhood, but not with any compulsion.

The whole life of the philosopher is a preparation for death.

Mob rule and emasculation of the wise' and 'who will watch the guardians'?

We must infer that all things are produced more plentifully and easily and of a better quality when one man does one thing which is natural to him and does it at the right time, and leaves other things.

We ought to fly away from earth to heaven as quickly as we can; and to fly away is to become like God, as far as this is possible; and to become like him is to become holy, just, and wise.

Worthy of honor is he who does no injustice, and more than twofold honor, if he not only does no injustice himself, but hinders others from doing any.

Nothing can be more absurd than the practice that prevails in our country of men and women not following the same pursuits with all their strengths and with one mind, for thus, the state instead of being whole is reduced to half.

When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest...and there is nothing to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war

The only real ill-doing is the deprivation of knowledge.

May I deem the wise man rich, and may I have such a portion of gold as none but a prudent man can either bear or employ.

The beginning is the most important part...for that is the time character is being formed.

A man is not learned until he can read, write and swim.

One trait in the philosopher's character we can assume is his love of the knowledge that reveals eternal reality, the realm unaffected by change and decay. He is in love with the whole of that reality, and will not willingly be deprived even of the most insignificant fragment of it - just like the lovers and men of ambition we described earlier on.

A democracy is a state in which the poor, gaining the upper hand, kill some and banish others, and then divide the offices among the remaining citizens equally, usually by lot.

If you are willing to reflect on the courage and moderation of other people, you will find them strange.

The true lover of learning then must his earliest youth, as far as in him lies, desire all truth.... He whose desires are drawn toward knowledge in every form will be absorbed in the pleasures of the soul, and will hardly feel bodily pleasures I mean, if he be a true philosopher and not a sham one ... Then how can he who has the magnificence of mind and is the spectator of all times and all existence, think much of human life He cannot. Or can such a one account death fearful No indeed.

Either we shall find what it is we are seeking or at least we shall free ourselves from the persuasion that we know what we do not know.

Haughtiness lives under the same roof with solitude.

For though a man should be a complete unbeliever in the being of gods; if he also has a native uprightness of temper, such persons will detest evil in men; their repugnance to wrong disinclines them to commit wrongful acts; they shun the unrighteous and are drawn to the upright.

No man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nature and education.

Not to help justice in her need would be an impiety.

The true lover of knowledge naturally strives for truth, and is not content with common opinion, but soars with undimmed and unwearied passion till he grasps the essential nature of things.

Wherefore also these Kinds [elements] occupied different places even before the universe was organised and generated out of them. Before that time, in truth, all these were in a state devoid of reason or measure, but when the work of setting in order this Universe was being undertaken, fire and water and earth and air, although possessing some traces of their known nature, were yet disposed as everything is likely to be in the absence of God; and inasmuch as this was then their natural condition, God began by first marking them out into shapes by means of forms and numbers.

The good is the beautiful.

The beginning is the most important part of any work, especially in the case of a young and tender thing; for that is the time at which the character is being formed and the desired impression is more readily taken.

Music gives a soul to the universe.

Justice in the life and conduct of the State is possible only as first it resides in the hearts and souls of the citizens.

Our need will be the real creator.

A man who is good for anything ought not to calculate the chance of living or dying; he ought only to consider whether in doing anything he is doing right or wrong - acting the part of a good man or of a bad.

Sin is disease, deformity, and weakness.

The excessive increase of anything causes a reaction in the opposite direction.

Necessity is literally the mother of invention.

A sensible man will remember that the eyes may be confused in two ways - by a change from light to darkness or from darkness to light; and he will recognize that the same thing happens to the soul.