Plato Quotes
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It behooves those who take the young to task to leave them room for excuse, lest they drive them to be hardened by too much rebuke.
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The good man is the only excellent musician, because he gives forth a perfect harmony not with a lyre or other instrument but with the whole of his life.
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Poets do not compose their poems with knowledge, but by some inborn talent and by inspiration, like seers and prophets who also say many fine things without any understanding of what they say.
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...for the object of education is to teach us to love beauty.
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A house that has a library in it has a soul.
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The more the pleasures of the body fade away, the greater to me is the pleasure and charm of conversation.
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Truthfulness. He will never willingly tolerate an untruth, but will hate it as much as he loves truth... And is there anything more closely connected with wisdom than truth?
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Love is a grave mental illness.
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Don't force your children into your ways, for they were created for a time different from your own.
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And we must beg Homer and the other poets not to be angry if we strike out these and similar passages, not because they are unpoetical, or unattractive to the popular ear, but because the greater the poetical charm in them, the less are they meet for the ears of boys and men who are meant to be free, and who should fear slavery more than death.
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True opinions are a fine thing and do all sorts of good so long as they stay in their place; but they will not stay long. They run away from a man's mind, so they are not worth much until you tether them by working out the reason. Once they are tied down, they become knowledge, and are stable.
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Anything worth knowing is already known and must be remembered and reclaimed by the soul.
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The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life.
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When a man drinks wine at dinner, he begins to be better pleased with himself.
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Those who practice philosophy in the right way are in training for dying and they fear death least of all men.
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It is beautiful to wish to add another's light to your own.
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Again, truth should be highly valued; if, as we were saying, a lie is useless to the gods, and useful only as a medicine to men, then the use of such medicines should be restricted to physicians; private individuals have no business with them.
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You want to know whether I can make a long speech, such as you are in the habit of hearing; but that is not my way.
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As long as I draw breath and am able, I won't give up practicing philosophy.
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Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity - I mean the true simplicity of a rightly and nobly ordered mind and character, not that other simplicity which is only a euphemism for folly.
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What is at issue is the conversion of the mind from the twilight of error to the truth, that climb up into the real world which we shall call true philosophy.
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There should be no element of slavery in learning. Enforced exercise does no harm to the body, but enforced learning will not stay in the mind. So avoid compulsion, and let your children's lessons take the form of play.
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Only a philosopher's mind grows wings, since its memory always keeps it as close as possible to those realities by being close to which the gods are divine.
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Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable.