Plato Quotes

“He who wishes to serve his country must have not only the power to think, but the will to act”

“Music is that which takes silence and brings it to life.”

“Those who have a natural talent for calculation are generally quick-witted at every other kind of knowledge; and even the dull, if they have had an arithmetical training, although they may derive no other advantage from it, always become much quicker than they would have been.”

“Those wretches who never have experienced the sweets of wisdom and virtue, but spend all their time in revels and debauches, sink downward day after day, and make their whole life one continued series of errors.”

“Observe that open loves are held to be more honourable than secret ones, and that the love of the noblest and highest, even if their persons are less beautiful than others, is especially honourable.”

“So where it is a general rule that it is wrong to gratify lovers, this can be attributed to the defects of those who make that rule: the government's lust for rule and the subjects' cowardice.”

“Money-makers are tiresome company, as they have no standard but cash value.”

“Then not only custom, but also nature affirms that to do is more disgraceful than to suffer injustice, and that justice is equality.”

“We obtain better knowledge of a person during one hour's play and games than by conversing with him for a whole year”

“The penalty that good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by men worse than themselves.”

“Wonder is the feeling of the philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.”

“In the world of knowledge, the essential Form of Good is the limit of our inquiries, and can barely be perceived; but, when perceived, we cannot help concluding that it is in every case the source of all that is bright and beautiful -in the visible world giving birth to light and its master, and in the intellectual world dispensing, immediately and with full authority, truth and reason -and that whosoever would act wisely, either in private or in public, must set this Form of Good before his eyes.”

“The most important part of education is proper training in the nursery.”

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

“Education and admonition commence in the first years of childhood, and last to the very end of life.”

“Aspiring minds must sometimes sustain loss.”

“Those who refuse to engage in politics will be led by their inferiors”

“When man is not properly trained, he is the most savage animal on the face of the globe.”

“Better to complete a small task well, than to do much imperfectly.”

“Wisdom is a blaze, kindled by a leaping spark.”

“To be at once exceedingly wealthy and good is impossible.”

“Freedom in a democracy is the glory of the state, and, therefore, in a democracy only will the freeman of nature deign to dwell.”

“He who is learning and learning and doesn't apply what he knows is like the one who is plowing and plowing and doesn't seed.”

“No one knows whether death is really the greatest blessing a man can have, but they fear it is the greatest curse, as if they knew well.”

“Conversion is not implanting eyes, for they exist already; but giving them a right direction, which they have not”