Plato's Quotes

Justice means minding one's own business and not meddling with other men's concerns.

Plato

Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself.

Plato

Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men.

Plato

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

Plato

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

Plato

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

Plato

Courage is knowing what not to fear.

Plato

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.

Plato

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

Plato

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.

Plato

Injustice is censured because the censures are afraid of suffering, and not from any fear which they have of doing injustice.

Plato

Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue.

Plato

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

Plato

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

Plato

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

Plato

No man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nature and education.

Plato

For good nurture and education implant good constitutions.

Plato

The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depends upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation, the man of manly character and of wisdom.

Plato

Our object in the construction of the state is the greatest happiness of the whole, and not that of any one class.

Plato

Love is a serious mental disease.

Plato

At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.

Plato

Love is the joy of the good, the wonder of the wise, the amazement of the Gods.

Plato

The god of love lives in a state of need. It is a need. It is an urge. It is a homeostatic imbalance. Like hunger and thirst, it's almost impossible to stamp out.

Plato

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

Plato

Death is not the worst that can happen to men.

Plato

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

Plato

Science is nothing but perception.

Plato

Wisdom alone is the science of other sciences.

Plato

The blame is his who chooses: God is blameless.

Plato

Better a little which is well done, than a great deal imperfectly.

Plato

The greatest wealth is to live content with little.

Plato

The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile.

Plato

The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men.

Plato

Democracy passes into despotism.

Plato

Attention to health is life's greatest hindrance.

Plato

Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.

Plato

Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.

Plato

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

Plato

Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.

Plato

And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul.

Plato

Knowledge becomes evil if the aim be not virtuous.

Plato

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

Plato

Knowledge without justice ought to be called cunning rather than wisdom.

Plato

Entire ignorance is not so terrible or extreme an evil, and is far from being the greatest of all; too much cleverness and too much learning, accompanied with ill bringing-up, are far more fatal.

Plato

Knowledge is true opinion.

Plato

Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.

Plato

Justice in the life and conduct of the State is possible only as first it resides in the hearts and souls of the citizens.

Plato

It is right to give every man his due.

Plato

There are three classes of men; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain.

Plato

Cunning... is but the low mimic of wisdom.

Plato