Plato Quotes
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The souls of people, on their way to Earth-life, pass through a room full of lights; each takes a taper - often only a spark - to guide it in the dim country of this world. But some souls, by rare fortune, are detained longer - have time to grasp a handful of tapers, which they weave into a torch. These are the torch-bearers of humanity - its poets, seers and saints, who lead and lift the race out of darkness, toward the light. They are the law-givers and saviors, the light-bringers, way-showers and truth-tellers, and without them, humanity would lose its way in the dark.
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We must, if we are to be consistent, and if we re to have a real pedigree herd, mate the best of our men with the best of our women as often as possible, and the inferior men with the inferior women as seldom as possible, and keep only the offspring of the best.
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The physician, to the extent he is a physician, considers only the good of the patient in what he prescribes, and his own not at all.
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It is better to be wise, and not to seem so, than to seem wise, and not be so; yet men, for the most part, desire the contrary.
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Better a good enemy than a bad friend.
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Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue.
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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.
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To be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile.
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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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You cannot conceive the many without the one...The study of the unit is among those that lead the mind on and turn it to the vision of reality.
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The poets are nothing but interpreters of the gods, each one possessed by the divinity to whom he is in bondage.
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For when there are no words, it is very difficult to recognize the meaning of the harmony and rhythm, or to see any worldly object is imitated by them.
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All knowledge is but remembrance.
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We are like people looking for something they have in their hands all the time; we're looking in all directions except at the thing we want, which is probably why we haven't found it.
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Was not this ... what we spoke of as the great advantage of wisdom -- to know what is known and what is unknown to us?
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To suffer the penalty of too much haste, which is too little speed.
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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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All men, well interrogated, answer well.
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No human thing is of serious importance.
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A wise ignorance is an essential part of knowledge.
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Is what is moral commanded by God because it is moral, or is it moral because it is commanded by God?
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Just as bees make honey from thyme, the strongest and driest of herbs, so do the wise profit from the most difficult of experiences.
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Take charge of your thoughts. You can do what you will with them.
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Life must be lived as play.