Plato Quotes
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Evil is the vulgar lover who loves the body rather than the soul, inasmuch as he is not even stable, because he loves a thing which is in itself unstable, and therefore when the bloom of youth which he was desiring is over, he takes wing and flies away, in spite of all his words and promises; whereas the love of the noble disposition is life-long, for it becomes one with the everlasting.
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Where love reigns, there's no need for laws.
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If we are to have any hope for the future, those who have lanterns must pass them on to others.
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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.
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The elements of instruction should be presented to the mind in childhood, but not with any compulsion.
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Whenever a person strives, by the help of dialectic, to start in pursuit of every reality by a simple process of reason, independent of all sensuous information - never flinching, until by an act of the pure intelligence he has grasped the real nature of good - he arrives at the very end of the intellectual world.
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That a guardian should require another guardian to take care of him is ridiculous indeed.
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He who advises a sick man, whose manner of life is prejudicial to health, is clearly bound first of all to change his patient's manner of life.
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Of all the Gods, Love is the best friend of humankind, the helper and healer of all ills that stand in the way of human happiness.
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.. we shall not be properly educated ourselves, nor will the guardians whom we are training, until we can recognise the qualities of discipline, courage, generosity, greatness of mind, and others akin to them, as well as their opposites in all their manifestations.
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Conversion is not implanting eyes, for they exist already; but giving them a right direction, which they have not.
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Those whose hearts are fixed on Reality itself deserve the title of Philosophers.
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... 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.
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Wise men speak because they have something to say.
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People too smart to get involved in politics are doomed to live in societies run by people who aren't.
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Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back.
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Only the dead have seen the end of war.
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The tools which would teach men their own use would be beyond price.
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Fly from the company of the wicked--fly and turn not back.
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There's a victory, and defeat; the first and best of victories, the lowest and worst of defeats which each man gains or sustains at the hands not of another, but of himself.
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So the nature required to make a really noble Guardian of our commonwealth will be swift and strong, spirited, and philosophic.
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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.
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There is nothing so delightful as the hearing, or the speaking of truth. For this reason, there is no conversation so agreeable as that of the man of integrity, who hears without any intention to betray, and speaks without any intention to deceive.
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Truth is its own reward.