Plato Quotes

“Democracy... is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder; and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.”

“You get to know someone better by playing for an hour than by talking for a year.”

“It was Plato, according to Sosigenes, who set this as a problem for those concerned with these things, through what suppositions of uniform and ordered movements the appearances concerning the movements of the wandering heavenly bodies could be preserved.”

“Those who intend on becoming great should love neither themselves nor their own things, but only what is just, whether it happens to be done by themselves or others.”

“The worst form of injustice is pretended justice.”

“The most important stage of any enterprise is the beginning.”

“If there is no contradictory impression, there is nothing to awaken reflection”

“The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being.”

“Fields and trees are not willing to teach me anything; but this can be effected by men residing in the city.”

“Not every love, but only that which has a noble purpose, is noble and worthy of praise.”

“People regard the same things, some as just and others as unjust, - about these they dispute; and so there arise wars and fightings among them.”

“The most beautiful motion is that which accomplishes the greatest results with the least amount of effort.”

“As long as I draw breath and am able, I won't give up practicing philosophy.”

“...that not life, but a good life, is to be chiefly valued.”

“Laws are partly formed for the sake of good men, in order to instruct them how they may live on friendly terms with one another, and partly for the sake of those who refuse to be instructed, whose spirit cannot be subdued, or softened, or hindered from plunging into evil.”

“Time on its back bears all things far away - Full many a challenge is wrought by many a day - Shape, fortune, name, and nature all decay”

“It is beautiful to wish to add another's light to your own.”

“Shall we not, then, lay down a law, in the first place, that boys shall abstain altogether from wine till their eighteenth year, thereby teaching that it is wrong to add fire to fire, as through a funnel, pouring it into their body and soul before they proceed to the labor of life, thus exercising a caution as to the maddening habits of youth.”

“Too much attention to health is a hindrance to learning, to invention, and to studies of any kind, for we are always feeling suspicious shootings and swimmings in our heads, and we are prone to blame studies from them.”

“But that we shall be better and braver and less helpless if we think that we ought to enquire, than we should have been if we indulged in the idle fancy that there was no knowing and no use in seeking to know what we do not know; - that is a theme upon which I am ready to fight, in word and deed, to the utmost of my power.”

“Philosophy begins in wonder.”

“Just as bees make honey from thyme, the strongest and driest of herbs, so do the wise profit from the most difficult of experiences.”

“Justice is having and doing what is one's own.”

“... what we can be positive about is what we have just said, namely that they must be given the right education, whatever that may be, as the surest way to make them behave humanely to each other and the subjects in their charge.”

“Democracy does not contain any force which will check the constant tendency to put more and more on the public payroll. The state is like a hive of bees in which the drones display, multiply and starve the workers so the idlers will consume the food and the workers will perish.”