Plato Quotes

True opinions are a fine thing and do all sorts of good so long as they stay in their place; but they will not stay long. They run away from a man's mind, so they are not worth much until you tether them by working out the reason. Once they are tied down, they become knowledge, and are stable.

We see many instances of cities going down like sinking ships to their destruction. There have been such wrecks in the past and there surely will be others in the future, caused by the wickedness of captains and crews alike. For these are guilty men, whose sin is supreme ignorance of what matters most.

Violent pleasures which reach the soul through the body are generally of this sort-they are reliefs of pain.

Enjoy life. There's plenty of time to be dead. Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.

When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing more to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.

You cannot go into the same water twice.

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.

Let every man remind their descendants that they also are soldiers who must not desert the ranks of their ancestors, or from cowardice fall behind.

Be kind, for everyone is having a hard battle.

There should be no element of slavery in learning. Enforced exercise does no harm to the body, but enforced learning will not stay in the mind. So avoid compulsion, and let your children's lessons take the form of play.

Such, Echecrates, was the end of our comrade, who was, we may fairly say, of all those whom we knew in our time, the bravest and also the wisest and most upright man.

Music is to the mind as air is to the body.

He whom loves touches not walks in darkness.

Man was not made for himself alone

For he who would proceed aright... should begin in youth to visit beautiful forms... out of that he should create fair thoughts; and soon he will of himself perceive that the beauty of one form is akin to the beauty of another, and that beauty in every form is one and the same.

And we have made of ourselves living cesspools, and driven doctors to invent names for our diseases.

Love is a serious mental disease.

For the man who makes everything that leads to happiness, or near to it, to depend upon himself, and not upon other men, on whose good or evil actions his own doings are compelled to hinge,--such a one, I say, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation; this is the man of manly character and of wisdom.

A fit of laughter, which has been indulged to excess, almost always produces a violent reaction.

For when there are no words, it is very difficult to recognize the meaning of the harmony and rhythm, or to see any worldly object is imitated by them.

The wisest of you men is he who has realized, like Socrates, that in respect of wisdom he is really worthless.

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.

Human beings have Love for one another inborn in them - Love, reassembler of our ancient nature, who tries to make one out of two and to heal human nature.

Let him know how to choose the mean and avoid the extremes on either side, as far as possible. . . . For this is the way of happiness.

The curse of me and my nation is that we always think things can be bettered by immediate action of some sort, any sort rather than no sort.

Misanthropy ariseth from a man trusting another without having sufficient knowledge of his character, and, thinking him to be truthful, sincere, and honourable, finds a little afterwards that he is wicked, faithless, and then he meets with another of the same character. When a man experiences this often, and more particularly from those whom he considered his most dear and best friends, at last, having frequently made a slip, he hates the whole world, and thinks that there is nothing sound at all in any of them.

For the introduction of a new kind of music must be shunned as imperiling the whole state; since styles of music are never disturbed without affecting the most important political institutions.

He that lendeth to another in time of prosperity, shall never want help himself in the time of adversity.

When you swear, swear seriously and solemnly, but at the same time with a smile, for a smile is the twin sister of seriousness.

The object of knowledge is what exists and its function to know about reality.

A good decision is based on knowledge, and not on numbers.

In the world of knowledge, the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with effort.

Music is a defining element of character.

He who gives himself to a lover because he is a good man, and in the hope that he will be improved by his company, shows himself to be virtuous, even though the object of his affection turn out to be a villain, and to have no virtue; and if he is deceived he has committed a noble error. For he has proved that for his part he will do anything for anybody with a view to virtue and improvement, than which there can be nothing nobler.

Other people are likely not to be aware that those who pursue philosophy aright study nothing but dying and being dead. Now if this is true, it would be absurd to be eager for nothing but this all their lives, and then to be troubled when that came for which they had all along been eagerly practicing.

A delightful form of government, anarchic and motley, assigning a kind of equality indiscriminately to equals and unequals alike!

We must now examine whether just people also live better and are happier than unjust ones. I think it's clear already that this is so, but we must look into it further, since the argument concerns no ordinary topic, but the way we ought to live.

Your dog is your only philosopher.

A written discourse on any subject is bound to contain much that is fanciful.

There is no harm in repeating a good thing.

Thinking and spoken discourse are the same thing, except that what we call thinking is, precisely, the inward dialogue carried on by the mind with itself without spoken sound.

The doctors will treat those of your citizens whose physical and psychological constitution is good: as for the others, they will leave the unhealthy to die and those whose psychological constitution is incurably warped they will be put to death.

Great is the issue at stake, greater than appears, whether a man is to be good or bad. And what will any one be profited if, under the influence of money or power, he neglect justice and virtue?

Where reverence is, there is fear; for he who has a feeling of reverence and shame about the commission of any action, fears and is afraid of an ill reputation.

Men of sound sense have Law for their god, but men without sense Pleasure.

Self conquest is the greatest of victories.

Only the dead will know the end of the war.

If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life.

In things which we know, everyone will trust us ... and we may do as we please, and no one will like to interfere with us; and we are free, and masters of others; and these things will be really ours, for we shall turn them to our good.

Wealth is well known to be a great comforter.

Love is a madness produced by an unsatisfiable rational desire to understand the ultimate truth about the world.

If a man says that it is right to give every one his due, and therefore thinks within his own mind that injury is due from a just man to his enemies but kindness to his friends, he was not wise who said so, for he spoke not the truth, for in no case has it appeared to be just to injure any one.

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

The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life.

What I say is that 'just' or 'right' means nothing but what is in the interest of the stronger party.

Books are immortal sons deifying their sires.

True friendship can exist only between equals.

There are three arts which are concerned with all things: one which uses, another which makes, and a third which imitates them.

The learning and knowledge that we have, is, at the most, but little compared with that of which we are ignorant.

Everything desires not like but unlike: for example, the dry desires the moist, the cold the hot, the bitter the sweet, the sharp the blunt, the void the full, the full the void, and so of all other things; for the opposite is the food of the opposite, whereas like receives like receives nothing from like.