Plato Quotes
-
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.
-
Those who have knowledge are more confident than those who have no knowledge, and they are more confident after they have learned than before.
-
A man who is good for anything ought not to calculate the chance of living or dying; he ought only to consider whether in doing anything he is doing right or wrong - acting the part of a good man or of a bad.
-
Wisdom always makes men fortunate: for by wisdom no man could ever err, and therefore he must act rightly and succeed, or his wisdom would be wisdom no longer.
-
Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another.
-
Let no one ignorant of Mathematics enter here.
-
Ignorance of all things is an evil neither terrible nor excessive, nor yet the greatest of all; but great cleverness and much learning, if they be accompanied by a bad training, are a much greater misfortune.
-
Access to power must be confined to those who are not in love with it.
-
As to the artists, do we not know that he only of them whom love inspires has the light of fame?-he whom love touches not walks in darkness.
-
When I hear a man discoursing of virtue, or of any sort of wisdom, who is a true man and worthy of his theme, I am delighted beyond measure: and I compare the man and his words, and note the harmony and correspondence of them. And such an one I deem to be the true musician, having in himself a fairer harmony than that of the lyre.
-
Then not only custom, but also nature affirms that to do is more disgraceful than to suffer injustice, and that justice is equality.
-
Physical excellence does not of itself produce a good mind and character: on the other hand, excellence of mind and character will make the best of the physique it is given.
-
Life must be lived as play, playing certain games, making sacrifices, singing and dancing, and then a man will be able to propitiate the gods.
-
When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them.
-
I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.
-
Courage is a kind of salvation.
-
...in every man there is an eye of the soul, which...is more precious far than ten thousand bodily eyes, for by it alone is truth seen.
-
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.
-
The measure of a man is what he does with power.
-
To do injustice is the greatest of all evils.
-
Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on Simplicity.
-
Would that I were the heaven, that I might be all full of love-lit eyes to gaze on thee.
-
So the state founded on natural principles is wise as a whole in virtue of the knowledge inherent in its smallest constituent class, which exercises authority over the rest. And the smallest class is the one which naturally possesses that form of knowledge which alone of all others deserves the title of wisdom.
-
There is no necessity for the man who means to be an orator to understand what is really just but only what would appear so to the majority of those who will give judgment; and not what is really good or beautiful but whatever will appear so; because persuasion comes from that and not from the truth.