Plato Quotes
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Thinking is the soul talking to itself.
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When a Benefit is wrongly conferred, the author of the Benefit may often be said to injure.
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According to Diotima, Love is not a god at all, but is rather a spirit that mediates between people and the objects of their desire. Love is neither wise nor beautiful, but is rather the desire for wisdom and beauty.
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No one punishes the evil-doer under the notion, or for the reason, that he has done wrong -- only the unreasonable fury of a beast acts in that way. But he who desires to inflict rational punishment does not retaliate for a past wrong, for that which is done cannot be undone, but he has regard to the future, and is desirous that the man who is punished, and he who sees him punished, may be deterred from doing wrong again.
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The true lover of learning then must his earliest youth, as far as in him lies, desire all truth.... He whose desires are drawn toward knowledge in every form will be absorbed in the pleasures of the soul, and will hardly feel bodily pleasures I mean, if he be a true philosopher and not a sham one ... Then how can he who has the magnificence of mind and is the spectator of all times and all existence, think much of human life He cannot. Or can such a one account death fearful No indeed.
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Since those who rule in the city do so because they own a lot, I suppose they're unwilling to enact laws to prevent young people who've had no discipline from spending and wasting their wealth, so that by making loans to them, secured by the young people's property, and then calling those loans in, they themselves become even richer and more honored.
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Μίμησιν μὲν γὰρ δὴ καὶ ἀπεικασίαν τὰ παρὰ πάντων ἡμῶν ῥηθέντα χρεών που γενέσθαι.
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Of all the things which a man has, next to the gods his soul is the most divine and most truly his own.
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The honour of parents is a fair and noble treasure to their posterity, but to have the use of a treasure of wealth and honour, and to leave none to your successors, because you have neither money nor reputation of your own, is alike base and dishonourable.
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Music has the capacity to touch the innermost reaches of the soul and music gives flight to the imagination.
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You cannot conceive the many without the one.
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Those who intend on becoming great should love neither themselves or their own things, but only what is just, whether it happens to be done by themselves or others.
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The greatest wealth is to live content with little.
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Any city, however small, is in fact divided into two, one the city of the poor, the other of the rich; these are at war with one another.
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If a man says that it is right to give every one his due, and therefore thinks within his own mind that injury is due from a just man to his enemies but kindness to his friends, he was not wise who said so, for he spoke not the truth, for in no case has it appeared to be just to injure any one.
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Upon consideration of the central question of the moon's toughness there can be little doubt. It is hella tough.
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Not one of them who took up in his youth with this opinion that there are no gods ever continued until old age faithful to his conviction.
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Either death is a state of nothingness and utter consciousness, or, as men say, there is a change and migration of the soul from this world to another. Now if death be of such a nature, I say that to die is to gain; for eternity is then only a single night.
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Harmony sinks deep into the recesses of the soul and takes its strongest hold there, bringing grace also to the body & mind as well. Music is a moral law. It gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, and life to everything. It is the essence of order.
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Violent pleasures which reach the soul through the body are generally of this sort-they are reliefs of pain.
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But of the heaven which is above the heavens, what earthly poet ever did or ever will sing worthily?
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Herein is the evil of ignorance, that he who is neither good nor wise is nevertheless satisfied with himself: he had no desire for that of which he feels no want.
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If the head and the body are to be well, you must begin by curing the soul.
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To a good man nothing that happens is evil.