Plato Quotes

Ignorance is the root cause of all difficulties.

Before all it's necessary to look after the Soul, if you want the head and the rest of the body to function correctly.

Yet surely the art of the shepherd is concerned
only with the good of his subjects; he has only to provide the best for them,
since the perfection of the art is already ensured whenever all the requirements
of it are satisfied. And that was what I was saying just now about the ruler. I
conceived that the art of the ruler, considered as ruler, whether in a state or in
private life, could only regard the good of his flock or subjects; whereas you
seem to think that the rulers in states, that is to say, the true rulers, like being in
authority.

It's like this, I think: the excellence of a good body doesn't make the soul good, but the other way around: the excellence of a good soul makes the body as good as it can be.

Necessity is literally the mother of invention.

If you are willing to reflect on the courage and moderation of other people, you will find them strange ... they all consider death a great evil ... and the brave among them face death, when they do, for fear of greater evils ... therefore, it is fear and terror that make all men brave, except for philosophers. yet it is illogical to be brave through fear and cowardice ... what of the moderate among them? is their experience not similar? ... they master certain pleasures because they are mastered by others ... i fear this is not the right exchange to attain virtue, to exchange pleasures for pleasures, pains for pains, and fears for fears, the greater for the less like coins, but that they only valid currency for which all these things should be exchanged is wisdom.

Then, if women are to have the same duties as men, they must have the same nurture and education? Yes. The education which was assigned to the men was music and gymnastic. Yes. Then women must be taught music and gymnastic and also the art of war, which they must practise like the men? That is the inference, I suppose. I

Ignorance, the root and the stem of every evil.

There is no such thing as a lover's oath.

On the other hand, I can't not defend her, since I can't help feeling it is wrong to stand idly by when I hear justice coming under attack, and not come to her defence for as long as I have breath in my body and a tongue in my head. So the best thing is to make what defence I can.

The deity on purpose [sings] the liveliest of all lyrics through the most miserable poet.

The same is true of patience or mental quickness. A brain like a sponge and an even
temper are all very well in one who minds the proper use of such things; to anyone else,
they may bring harm.

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

The State which we have founded must possess the four cardinal virtues of wisdom, courage, discipline and justice ... Justice is the principle which has in fact been followed throughout, the principle of one man one job, of minding one s own business , in the sense of doing the job for which one is naturally fitted and not interfering with other people.

Love is a serious mental disease.

Then anyone who leaves behind him a written manual, and likewise anyone who receives it, in the belief that such writing will be clear and certain, must be exceedingly simple-minded ...

...both wealth and concord decline as possessions become pursued and honored. And virtue perishes with them as well.

Homosexuality is regarded as shameful by barbarians and by those who live under despotic governments just as philosophy is regarded as shameful by them, because it is apparently not in the interest of such rulers to have great ideas engendered in their subjects, or powerful friendships or passionate love - all of which homosexuality is particularly apt to produce.

As it is, the lover of inquiry must follow his beloved wherever it may lead him.

Books are immortal sons deifying their sires.

Take charge of your thoughts. You can do what you will with them

Love is the pursuit of the whole.

Imagine then a fleet or a ship in which there is a captain who is taller and stronger than any of the crew, but he is a little deaf and has a similar infirmity in sight, and his knowledge of navigation is not much better. The sailors are quarrelling with one another about the steering --every one is of opinion that he has a right to steer, though he has never learned the art of navigation and cannot tell who taught him or when he learned, and will further assert that it cannot be taught, and they are ready to cut in pieces any one who says the contrary. They throng about the captain, begging and praying him to commit the helm to them; and if at any time they do not prevail, but others are preferred to them, they kill the others or throw them overboard, and having first chained up the noble captain's senses with drink or some narcotic drug, they mutiny and take possession of the ship and make free with the stores; thus, eating and drinking, they proceed on their voyage in such a manner as might be expected of them. Him who is their partisan and cleverly aids them in their plot for getting the ship out of the captain's hands into their own whether by force or persuasion, they compliment with the name of sailor, pilot, able seaman, and abuse the other sort of man, whom they call a good-for-nothing; but that the true pilot must pay attention to the year and seasons and sky and stars and winds, and whatever else belongs to his art, if he intends to be really qualified for the comm

The power of the Good has taken refuge in the nature of the Beautiful

God forever geometrizes.

A great work - yes; but not the greatest, unless he find a State suitable to him; for in a State which is suitable to him, he will have a larger growth and be the saviour of his country, as well as of himself. The causes why philosophy is in such an evil name have now been sufficiently explained: the injustice of the charges against her has been shown - is there anything more which you wish to say? Nothing

The life which is not examined is not worth living.

For all good and evil, whether in the body or in human nature, originates ... in the soul, and overflows from thence, as from the head into the eyes.

It is the task of the enlightened not only to ascend to learning and to see the good but to be willing to descend again to those prisoners and to share their troubles and their honors, whether they are worth having or not. And this they must do, even with the prospect of death.

...we must go where the argument carries us, as a vessel runs before the wind.

For the one (what is dear to the gods) is of the sort to be loved
because it is loved; the other (the holy), because it is of the sort to be loved,
therefore is loved.

The lesser mysteries of love
For he who would proceed aright in this matter should begin in youth to visit beautiful form; and first, if he be guided by his instructor aright, to love one such form only
out of that he should create fair thoughts; and soon he will of himself perceive that the beauty of one form is akin to the beauty of another; and then if beauty of form in general is his pursuit, how foolish would he be not to recognize that the beauty in every form is one and the same! And when he perceives this he will abate his violent love of the one, which he will despise and deem a small thing, and will become a lover of all beautiful forms; in the next stage he will consider that the beauty of the mind is more honorable than the beauty of the outward form.

When you feel grateful, you become great, and eventually attract great things.

And what do you say of lovers of wine ... they are glad of any pretext of drinking any wine

To prefer evil to good is not in human nature; and when a man is compelled to choose one of two evils, no one will choose the greater when he might have the less.

Yet whenever someone comes upon his very own half then they are wondrously struck with affection and intimacy and love, and are practically unwilling to be separated from one another even for a short time. And it is they who stay together for life, and who wouldn't be able to say what they want to get for themselves from one another.

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.

Appearance tyrannizes over truth.

The only thing worse than suffering an injustice is committing an injustice.

I fast for greater physical and mental efficiency

when there arose a further question about the comparative advantages of justice and injustice, I could not refrain from passing on to that. And the result of the whole discussion has been that I know nothing at all. For I know not what justice is, and therefore I am not likely to know whether it is or is not a virtue, nor can I say whether the just man is happy or unhappy.

The rhetorician need not know the truth about things; he has only to discover some way of persuading the ignorant that he has more knowledge than those who know.

So we would be right to say the seers and prophets just mentioned are 'divine' and
'inspired' – likewise, everyone with a knack for poetry. Likewise, politicians and public
figures are nothing less than divine and possessed when – under some god's inspiration
and influence – they give speeches that lead to success in important matters, even they
have no idea what they are talking about. – Quite so.

The newest song which the singers have,' they will be afraid that he may be praising, not new songs, but a new kind of song; and this ought not to be praised, or conceived to be the meaning of the poet; for any musical innovation is full of danger to the whole State, and ought to be prohibited. So Damon tells me, and I can quite believe him; - he says that when modes of music change, the fundamental laws of the State always change with them. Yes,

he who would proceed in due course should love first one fair form, and then many, and learn the connexion of them; and from beautiful bodies he should proceed to beautiful minds, and the beauty of laws and institutions, until he perceives that all beauty is of one kindred; and from institutions he should go on to the sciences, until at last the vision is revealed to him of a single science of universal beauty, and then he will behold the everlasting nature which is the cause of all, and will be near the end. In the contemplation of that supreme being of love he will be purified of earthly leaven, and will behold beauty, not with the bodily eye, but with the eye of the mind, and will bring forth true creations of virtue and wisdom,

Excess of liberty, whether it lies in state or individuals, seems only to pass into excess of slavery.

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 mean this: we were right to agree that good men must be beneficent, and that this could not be otherwise.

Truth is its own reward.

Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence.

We must now examine whether just people also live better and are happier than unjust ones. I think it's clear already that this is so, but we must look into it further, since the argument concerns no ordinary topic, but the way we ought to live.

You may be sure, dear Crito, that inaccurate language is not only in itself a mistake: it implants evil in men's souls.

Man is a prisoner who has no right to open the door of his prison and run away ... A man should wait, and not take his own life until God summons him.

To go to the world below, having a soul which is like a vessel full of injustice, is the last and worst of all the evils.

So their combinations with themselves and with each other give rise to endless complexities, which anyone who is to give a likely account of reality must survey.

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

For, Simmias and Cebes, I should be wrong
not to resent dying if I did not believe that I should go first to other wise
and good gods, and then to men who have died and are better than men
are here. Be assured that, as it is, I expect to join the company of good
men. This last I would not altogether insist on, but if I insist on anything
at all in these matters, it is that I shall come to gods who are very good
masters. That is why I am not so resentful, because I have good hope that
some future awaits men after death, as we have been told for years, a
much better future for the good than for the wicked.

The soul should concentrate itself by itself.

For the plan grows under the author's hand; new thoughts occur to him in the act of writing; he has not worked out the argument to the end before he begins.

Still I have a favor to ask of them. When my sons are grown up, I would ask you, O my friends, to punish them; and I would have you trouble them, as I have troubled you, if they seem to care about riches, or anything, more than about virtue; or if they pretend to be something when they are really nothing, - then reprove them, as I have reproved you, for not caring about that for which they ought to care, and thinking that they are something when they are really nothing. And if you do this, I and my sons will have received justice at your hands.

For we cannot suppose that States are made of 'oak and rock,' and not out of the human natures which are in them, and which in a figure turn the scale and draw other things after them? Yes,

In order to be a good soldier it is necessary to know how to dance.

I can't refute you, Socrates," Agathon said, "so I dare say you're right."

"No," said Socrates, "it's the truth you can't refute, my dear Agathon. Socrates is a pushover.

In a democracy only will the freeman of nature design to dwell.

Since then, as philosophers prove, appearance tyrannizes over truth and is lord of happiness, to appearance I must devote myself.

A democracy is a state in which the poor, gaining the upper hand, kill some and banish others, and then divide the offices among the remaining citizens equally, usually by lot.

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

Arguments, like men, are often pretenders.

For harmony is a symphony, and symphony is an agreement; but an agreement of disagreements while they disagree there cannot be; you cannot harmonize that which disagrees.

Why, you know, I said, that the eyes, when a person directs them towards objects on which the light of day is no longer shining, but the moon and stars only, see dimly, and are nearly blind; they seem to have no clearness of vision in them? Very true. But when they are directed towards objects on which the sun shines, they see clearly and there is sight in them? Certainly. And the soul is like the eye: when resting upon that on which truth and being shine, the soul perceives and understands, and is radiant with intelligence; but when turned towards the twilight of becoming and perishing, then she has opinion only, and goes blinking about, and is first of one opinion and then of another, and seems to have no intelligence? Just so.

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

For every man who has learned to fight in arms will desire to learn the proper arrangement of an army, which is the sequel of the lesson.

Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.

Men of Athens, I honor and love you; but I shall obey God rather than you, and while I have life and strength I shall never cease from the practice and teaching of philosophy ... Understand that I shall never alter my ways, not even if I have to die many times.

Knowledge is the food of the soul.

So if anyone is to declare how the all was in this way genuinely born, he must also mix in the form of the wandering cause-how it is its nature to sweep things around. In this way, then, we must retreat, and, by taking in turn another, new beginning suited to these very matters, just as in what was before us earlier, so too in what is before us now, we must begin again from the beginning.

I take it that our state, having been founded and built up on the right lines, is good in the complete sense of the word.

I must go beyond the dark world of sense information to the clear brilliance of the sunlight of the outside world. Once done, it becomes my duty to go back to the cave in order to illuminate the minds of those imprisoned in the 'darkness' of sensory knowledge.

People too smart to get involved in politics are doomed to live in societies run by people who aren't.

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.

No man will survive who genuinely opposes you or any other crowd and prevents the occurrence of many unjust and illegal happenings in the city. A man who really fights for justice must lead a private, not a public, life if he is to survive for even a short time

And may we not say confidently of man also, that he who is likely to be gentle to his friends and acquaintances, must by nature be a lover of wisdom and knowledge? That we may safely affirm. Then he who is to be a really good and noble guardian of the State will require to unite in himself philosophy and spirit and swiftness and strength? Undoubtedly. Then we have found the desired natures; and now that we have found them, how are they to be reared and educated?

People are like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die.

Train children not by compulsion but as if they were playing.

Friends possess everything in common.

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.

Wealth does not bring excellence, but that wealth comes from excellence.

The wisest of you men is he who has realized, like Socrates, that in respect of wisdom he is really worthless.

The greatest mistake in the treatment of diseases is that there are physicians for the body and physicians for the soul, although the two cannot be separated.

Doesn't it follow that a ship's captain or ruler won't seek and order what is advantageous to himself, but what is advantageous to a sailor? He reluctantly agreed. So, then, Thrasymachus, no one in any position of rule, insofar as he is a ruler, seeks or orders what is advantageous to himself, but what is advantageous to his subjects; the ones of whom he is himself the craftsman. It is to his subjects and what is advantageous and proper to them that he looks, and everything he says and does he says and does for them.

We do not learn; and what we call learning is only a process of recollection.

... if a man can be properly said to love something, it must be clear that he feels affection for it as a whole, and does not love part of it to the exclusion of the rest.

Love is an intermediate state between possession and deprivation.

Other people are likely not to be aware that those who pursue philosophy aright study nothing but dying and being dead. Now if this is true, it would be absurd to be eager for nothing but this all their lives, and then to be troubled when that came for which they had all along been eagerly practicing.

Then, when the rhetorician is more persuasive than the physician, the ignorant is more persuasive with the ignorant than he who has knowledge? - is not that the inference?

You did not seem to me over-fond of money. And this is the way in general with those who have not made it themselves, while those who have are twice as fond of it as anyone else. For just as poets are fond of their own poems, and fathers of their own children, so money-makers become devoted to money, not only because, like other people, they find it useful, but because it's their own creation.

Every unjust man is unjust against his will.

To conquer oneself is the best and noblest victory; to be vanquished by one's own nature is the worst and most ignoble defeat.

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.

Let him know how to choose the mean and avoid the extremes on either side, as far as possible ... For this is the way of happiness.