Quotes by Plato (Page 3 of 4)

Books are immortal sons deifying their sires.

Better to be unborn than untaught, for ignorance is the root of all misfortune.

The object of education is to teach us to love what is beautiful.

The wise man will want to be ever with him who is better than himself.

Education is teaching our children to desire the right things.

An empty vessel makes the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers.

The worst form of injustice is pretended justice.

Those who tell the stories rule society.

The first and best victory is to conquer self.

Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood let alone believed by the masses.

The reason is that they utter these words of theirs not by virtue of a skill, but by a divine power -- otherwise, if they knew how to speak well on one topic thanks to a skill, they would know how to speak about every other topic too.

The matter is as it is in all other cases: if it is naturally in you to be a good orator, a notable orator you will be when you have acquired knowledge and practice .

The Muse herself makes some men inspired, from whom a chain of other men is strung out who catch their own inspiration from theirs.

So I spoke the truth when I said that neither I nor you nor any other man would rather do injustice than suffer it: for it is worse.

For it is clear, on the one hand, that have you been familiar with these things for a long time--whatever you wish to signify when you utter being--and, before this we used to believe it, but now we have been perplexed.

I Laïs who laughed scornfully at Hellas,
who kept a swarm of young lovers at my door,
I lay my mirror before the Paphian,
for I will not see myself as I am now,
and cannot see myself as once I was.

You were the Morning Star among the living.
In death, O Evening Star, you light the dead.

Aphrodite cried at Knidos when she saw Aphrodite:
O Zeus! Where did Praxiteles see me naked?

I am a sailor's tomb. Beside me lies a farmer.
Hell is the same, under the land and sea.

A poet, you see, is a light thing, and winged and holy, and cannot compose before he gets inspiration and loses control of his senses and his reason has deserted him.

Only a philosopher's mind grows wings, since its memory always keeps it as close as possible to those realities by being close to which the gods are divine.

Love' is the name for our pursuit of wholeness, for our desire to be complete.

For to fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise without really being wise, for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For no one knows whether death may not be the greatest good that can happen to man.

Love is born into every human being; it calls back the halves of our original nature together; it tries to make one out of two and heal the wound of human nature.

Aristotle was the most eminent of all the pupils of Plato.... He seceded from Plato while he was still alive; so that they tell a story that Plato said, Aristotle has kicked us off, just as chickens do their mother after they have been hatched.

When the citizens of a society can see and hear their leaders, then that society should be seen as one.

Hereditary honors are a noble and a splendid treasure to descendants.

To the rulers of the state then, if to any, it belongs of right to use falsehood, to deceive either enemies or their own citizens, for the good of the state: and no one else may meddle with this privilege.

Philosophy is an elegant thing, if anyone modestly meddles with it; but if they are conversant with it more than is becoming, it corrupts them.

But tell me, this physician of whom you were just speaking, is he a moneymaker, an earner of fees, or a healer of the sick?

Again, truth should be highly valued; if, as we were saying, a lie is useless to the gods, and useful only as a medicine to men, then the use of such medicines should be restricted to physicians; private individuals have no business with them.

The tools which would teach men their own use would be beyond price.

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.

Remember our words, then, and whatever is your aim let virtue be the condition of the attainment of your aim, and know that without this all possessions and pursuits are dishonourable and evil.

And first he will see the shadows best, next the reflections of men and other objects in the water, and then the objects themselves, then he will gaze upon the light of the moon and the stars and the spangled heaven...Last of all he will be able to see the sun.

God is not the author of all things, but of good only.

Thus rhetoric, it seems, is a producer of persuasion for belief, not for instruction in the matter of right and wrong ... And so the rhetorician's business is not to instruct a law court or a public meeting in matters of right and wrong, but only to make them believe.

Must not all things at the last be swallowed up in death?

Let nobody speak mischief of anybody.

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

The honour of parents is a fair and noble treasure to their posterity, but to have the use of a treasure of wealth and honour, and to leave none to your successors, because you have neither money nor reputation of your own, is alike base and dishonourable.

Let us describe the education of our men. What then is the education to be? Perhaps we could hardly find a better than that which the experience of the past has already discovered, which consists, I believe, in gymnastic, for the body, and music for the mind.

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

The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.

In politics we presume that everyone who knows how to get votes knows how to administer a city or a state. When we are ill... we do not ask for the handsomest physician, or the most eloquent one.

If you harm a horse do you make him better or worse?
Worse.

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.

The proud man is forsaken of God.

Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.

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

What is at issue is the conversion of the mind from the twilight of error to the truth, that climb up into the real world which we shall call true philosophy.

A house that has a library in it has a soul.

Have you ever sensed that our soul is immortal and never dies?

A tyrant... is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.

Welcome out of the cave, my friend. It's a bit colder out here, but the stars are just beautiful.

The highest form of pure thought is in mathematics.

He is unworthy of the name of man who is ignorant of the fact that the diagonal of a square is incommensurable with its side.

I will prove by my life that my critics are liars.

Love is the pursuit of the whole.

No evil can happen to a good man either in life or after death.

I to die, and you to live. Which is better God only knows.

According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate parts, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves.

Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.

All things are in fate, yet all things are not decreed by fate.

I am that gadfly which God has attached to the state, and all day long …arousing and persuading and reproaching…You will not easily find another like me.

Serious things cannot be understood without laughable things, nor opposites at all without opposites.

That in our state one man was to do one job, and the job he was naturally most suited for .. And further, we have often heard and often said that justice consists of minding your own business and not interfering with other people.

Self conquest is the greatest of victories.

No wealth can ever make a bad man at peace with himself.

When a beautiful soul harmonizes with a beautiful form, and the two are cast in one mould, that will be the fairest of sights to him who has the eye to contemplate the vision.

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

My good friend, you are a citizen of Athens, a city which is very great and very famous for its wisdom and power -- are you not ashamed of caring so much for the making of money and for fame and prestige, when you neither think nor care about wisdom and truth and the improvement of your soul?

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.

Would that I were the heaven, that I might be all full of love-lit eyes to gaze on thee.

For I am certain, O men of Athens, that if I had engaged in politics, I should have perished long ago and done no good either to you or to myself.

Modesty is becoming in youth.

Socrates: I'm afraid that it might actually be sacrilegious to stand idly by while morality is being denigrated and not try to assist as long as one has breath in one's body and a voice to protest with.

As I kissed Agathon my soul swelled to my lips,
where it hangs, pitiful, hoping to leap across.

I prefer nothing, unless it is true.

You can't do good if you don't feel good.

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

Integrity is your destiny-it is the light that guides your way.

These, then, will be some of the features of democracy... it will be, in all likelihood, an agreeable, lawless, parti-colored commonwealth, dealing with all alike on a footing of equality, whether they be really equal or not.

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

I know not how I may seem to others, but to myself I am but a small child wandering upon the vast shores of knowledge, every now and then finding a small bright pebble to content myself with.

You should not honor men more than truth.

Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion has no hold on the mind. Therefore do not use compulsion, but let early education be a sort of amusement; you will then be better able to discover the child's natural bent.

The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things.

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.

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

There is far greater peril in buying knowledge than in buying meat and drink.

And when one of them meets the other half, the actual half of himself, whether he be a lover of youth or a lover of another sort, the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy and one will not be out of the other's sight, as I may say, even for a moment.

The soul takes nothing with her to the next world but her education and her culture. At the beginning of the journey to the next world, one's education and culture can either provide the greatest assistance, or else act as the greatest burden, to the person who has just died.

Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.

Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.

Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on Simplicity.

Happiness springs from doing good and helping others.

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle.

Mankind will never see an end of trouble until lovers of wisdom come to hold political power, or the holders of power become lovers of wisdom.

A grateful mind is a great mind which eventually attracts to itself great things.

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.

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

Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.

Man -- a being in search of meaning.

Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.

Musical innovation is full of danger to the State, for when modes of music change, the fundamental laws of the State always change with them.

Philosophy is the highest music.

All learning has an emotional base.

No human thing is of serious importance.

When a Benefit is wrongly conferred, the author of the Benefit may often be said to injure.

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

When the mind is thinking it is talking to itself.

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

I shall assume that your silence gives consent.

They do certainly give very strange, and newfangled, names to diseases.

The gods' service is tolerable, man's intolerable.

Then not only an old man, but also a drunkard, becomes a second time a child.

One man cannot practice many arts with success.

The highest reach of injustice is to be deemed just when you are not.

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.

No one ever teaches well who wants to teach, or governs well who wants to govern.

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

Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men.

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.

Honesty is for the most part less profitable than dishonesty.

The eyes of the soul of the multitudes are unable to endure the vision of the divine.

No one is a friend to his friend who does not love in return.

The measure of a man is what he does with power.

A hero is born among a hundred, a wise man is found among a thousand, but an accomplished one might not be found even among a hundred thousand men.

Excess generally causes reaction, and produces a change in the opposite direction, whether it be in the seasons, or in individuals, or in governments.

No law or ordinance is mightier than understanding.

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.

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.

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

Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.

Know one knows whether death, which people fear to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good.

Attention to health is life's greatest hindrance.

Poets utter great and wise things which they do not themselves understand.