Plato Quotes
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What is better adapted than the festive use of wine in the first place to test and in the second place to train the character of a man, if care be taken in the use of it? What is there cheaper or more innocent?
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When the citizens of a society can see and hear their leaders, then that society should be seen as one.
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When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them.
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Do thine own work, and know thyself.
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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.
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It is fear and terror that make all men brave, except the philosophers. Yet it is illogical to be brave through fear and cowardice.
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Fields and trees are not willing to teach me anything; but this can be effected by men residing in the city.
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Those who have knowledge are more confident than those who have no knowledge, and they are more confident after they have learned than before.
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Maximize the power of the beliefs that strengthen you and neutralize those that weaken you.
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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.
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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.
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Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.
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Neither human wisdom nor divine inspiration can confer upon man any greater blessing than this live a life of happiness and harmony here on earth.
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Wisest is he who knows what he does not know.
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Then not only custom, but also nature affirms that to do is more disgraceful than to suffer injustice, and that justice is equality.
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The penalty that good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by men worse than themselves.
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Not to help justice in her need would be an impiety.
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Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on Simplicity.
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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.
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The ultimate design of the Mysteries ... was to lead us back to the principles from which we descended, ... a perfect enjoyment of intellectual [spiritual] good.