Plato Quotes
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The cause of all sins in every case lies in the person's excessive love of self.
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I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.
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Necessity is literally the mother of invention.
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The purpose of education is to give to the body and to the soul all the beauty and all the perfection of which they are capable.
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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.
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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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No man should be angry with what is true.
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In one sense it is evident that the art of kingship does include the art of lawmaking. But the political ideal is not full authority for laws but rather full authority for a man who understands the art of kingship and has kingly ability.
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Virtue is relative to the actions and ages of each of us in all that we do.
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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.
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Wherever it has been established that it is shameful to be involved with sexual relationships with men, that is due to evil on the part of the rulers, and to cowardice on the part of the governed.
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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.
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Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.
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Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on Simplicity.
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For the rhapsode ought to interpret the mind of the poet to his hearers, but how can he interpret him well unless he knows what he means?
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When the mind's eye rests on objects illuminated by truth and reality, it understands and comprehends them, and functions intelligently; but when it turns to the twilight world of change and decay, it can only form opinions, its vision is confused and its beliefs shifting, and it seems to lack intelligence.
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A drunkard is unprofitable for any kind of good service.
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The learning and knowledge that we have, is, at the most, but little compared with that of which we are ignorant.
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The truth is that we isolate a particular kind of love and appropriate it for the name of love, which really belongs to a wider whole.
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'But surely "blind" is just how you would describe men who have no true knowledge of reality, and no clear standard in their mind to refer to, as a painter refers to his model, and which they can study closely before they start laying down rules about what is fair or right or good where they are needed, or maintaining, as Guardians, any rules that already exist.' 'Yes, blind is just about what they are'