"That makes me think, my friend, as..." - Quote by Plato
That makes me think, my friend, as I have often done before, how natural it is that those who have spent a long time in the study of philosophy appear ridiculous when they enter the courts of law as speakers. Those who have knocked about in courts and the like from their youth up seem to me, when compared with those who have been brought up in philosophy and similar pursuits, to be as slaves in breeding compared with freemen.
More by Plato
“The heaviest penalty for deciding to engage in politics is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself.”
“In order to be a good soldier it is necessary to know how to dance.”
“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.”
More on Philosophy
“Every action needs to be prompted by a motive.”
“However inadequate our ideas of causal efficacy may be, we are less wide of the mark when we say that our ideas and feelings have it, than the Automatists are when they say they haven't it. As in the night all cats are gray, so in the darkness of metaphysical criticism all causes are obscure. But one has no right to pull the pall over the psychic half of the subject only . . . whilst in the same breath one dogmatizes about material causation as if Hume, Kant, and Lotze had never been born.”
“How do we transform mere power into justice, mere sentiment into love?”
More on Law
“In case anybody asks you about my position on capital punishment, you can tell them I favor it; and if they want to know why, you can tell them this story.”
“Every actual State is corrupt. Good men must not obey the laws too well.”
“Equality before the law is probably forever unattainable. It is a noble ideal, but it can never be realized, for what men value in this world is not rights but privileges.”