Plato Quotes
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That a guardian should require another guardian to take care of him is ridiculous indeed.
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Wonder is the feeling of the philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.
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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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The most important part of education is proper training in the nursery.
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Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind's eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye; and he who remembers this when he sees any one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter light, and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by excess of light.
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The greatest penalty of evil-doing is to grow into the likeness of a bad man.
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Much sleep is not required by nature, either for our souls or bodies, or for the action in which they are concerned.
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The wisest have the most authority.
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There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.
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Serious things cannot be understood without laughable things, nor opposites at all without opposites.
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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.
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Discordance is evil. Harmony is virtue.
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I really do not know, Socrates, how to express what I mean. For somehow or other our arguments, on whatever ground we rest them, seem to turn round and walk away from us.
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The cause of all the blunders committed by man arises from this excessive self-love. For the lover is blinded by the object loved; so that he passes a wrong judgment on what is just, good and beautiful, thinking that he ought always to honor what belongs to himself in preference to truth. For he who intends to be a great man ought to love neither himself nor his own things, but only what is just, whether it happens to be done by himself, or by another.
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If we are to keep our flock at the highest pitch of excellence, there should be as many unions of the best of both sexes, and as few of the inferior as possible, and that only the offspring of the better unions should be kept.
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The greater part of instruction is being reminded of things you already know.
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To be sure I must; and therefore I may assume that your silence gives consent.
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The best stomachs are not those which reject all foods.
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Aspiring minds must sometimes sustain loss.
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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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O youth or young man, who fancy that you are neglected by the gods, know that if you become worse, you shall go to worse souls, or if better to the better... In every succession of life and death, you will do and suffer what like may fitly suffer at the hands of like. This is the justice of heaven.
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Observe that open loves are held to be more honourable than secret ones, and that the love of the noblest and highest, even if their persons are less beautiful than others, is especially honourable.
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As the government is, such will be the man.
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Everything that deceives may be said to enchant.