Plato Quotes: Plato is one of the first systematic philosophers in the history of philosophy and is an important philosopher who has thoughts on many subjects from science to art and mathematics.
We listed best Plato Quotes about life, love, education, democracy, self
‘”The life which is not examined is not worth living.”‘
‘”The three wishes of every man: to be healthy, to be rich by honest means, and to be beautiful.”‘
‘”Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.”‘
‘”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.”‘
‘”Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow… even if that someone is yourself!”‘
‘”I know not how I may seem to others, but to myself I am but a small child wandering upon the vast shores of knowledge, every now and then finding a small bright pebble to content myself with”‘
‘”To begin is the most important part of any quest and by far the most courageous.”‘
‘”The cure of the part should not be attempted without treatment of the whole. No attempt should be made to cure the body without the soul. Let no one persuade you to cure the head until he has first given you his soul to be cured, for this is the great error of our day, that physicians first separate the soul from the body.”‘
‘”If one has made a mistake, and fails to correct it, one has made a greater mistake.”‘
‘”All wars are fought for the sake of getting money.”‘
‘”Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood let alone believed by the masses.”‘
‘”If we are to have any hope for the future, those who have lanterns must pass them on to others.”‘
‘”A true artist is someone who gives birth to a new reality.”‘
‘”Thinking is the soul talking to itself.”‘
‘”We understand why children are afraid of darkness … but why are men afraid of light?”‘
‘”When man is not properly trained, he is the most savage animal on the face of the globe.”‘
‘”I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”‘
‘”One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”‘
‘”Ignorance is the root cause of all difficulties.”‘
‘”The wise man will want to be ever with him who is better than himself.”‘
‘”Do not expect justice where might is right.”‘
‘”The greatest mistake physicians make is that they attempt to cure the body without attempting to cure the mind, yet the mind and the body are one and should not be treated separately!”‘
‘”Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.”‘
‘”God is truth and light his shadow.”‘
‘”The first and the best victory is to conquer self.”‘
‘”When you feel grateful, you become great, and eventually attract great things.”‘
‘”Better to complete a small task well, than to do much imperfectly.”‘
‘”The seen is the changing, the unseen is the unchanging.”‘
‘”Do not force your children into your ways, for they were created for a time different from your own.”‘
‘”He who does not desire power is fit to hold it.”‘
‘”The one who learns and learns and does not practice is like the one who plows and plows and never plants.”‘
‘”For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.”‘
‘”The right question is usually more important than the right answer.”‘
‘”Seek truth while you are young, for if you do not, it will later escape your grasp”‘
‘”A wise man speaks because he has something to say; a fool because he has to say something.”‘
‘”Pleasure is the greatest incentive to evil.”‘
‘”Reality is created by the mind, we can change our reality by changing our mind.”‘
‘”Where love reigns, there is no need for laws.”‘
‘”No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.”‘
‘”Better a good enemy than a bad friend.”‘
‘”If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools.”‘
‘”Do not train children to learning by force and harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds.”‘
‘”You get to know someone better by playing for an hour than by talking for a year.”‘
‘”You should not honor men more than truth.”‘
‘”Tyranny naturally arises out of democracy.”‘
‘”The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”‘
‘”But tell me, this physician of whom you were just speaking, is he a moneymaker, an earner of fees, or a healer of the sick?”‘
‘”Welcome out of the cave, my friend. It is a bit colder out here, but the stars are just beautiful.”‘
‘”All learning is in the learner, not the teacher.”‘
‘”Wisest is he who knows what he does not know.”‘
‘”Better a little which is well done, than a great deal imperfectly.”‘
‘”The greatest wealth is to live content with little.”‘
‘”Music is to the mind as air is to the body.”‘
‘”Happiness springs from doing good and helping others.”‘
‘”Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.”‘
‘”The worst of all deceptions is self-deception.”‘
‘”A grateful mind is a great mind which eventually attracts to itself great things.”‘
‘”Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being”‘
‘”The essence of knowledge is self-knowledge.”‘
‘”False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.”‘
‘”Life should be lived as play.”‘
‘”The measure of a man is what he does with power.”‘
‘”Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on Simplicity.”‘
‘”We become what we contemplate.”‘
‘”No one ever dies an atheist.”‘
‘”Those who tell the stories rule society.”‘
‘”The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things.”‘
‘”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.”‘
‘”If the head and the body are to be well, you must begin by curing the soul.”‘
‘”Perfect wisdom has four parts: Wisdom, the principle of doing things aright. Justice, the principle of doing things equally in public and private. Fortitude, the principle of not fleeing danger, but meeting it. Temperance, the principle of subduing desires and living moderately.”‘
‘”Just as bees make honey from thyme, the strongest and driest of herbs, so do the wise profit from the most difficult of experiences.”‘
‘”Follow your dream as long as you live, do not lessen the time of following desire, for wasting time is an abomination of the spirit.”‘
‘”A library of wisdom, is more precious than all wealth, and all things that are desirable cannot be compared to it. Whoever therefore claims to be zealous of truth, of happiness, of wisdom or knowledge, must become a lover of books.”‘
‘”Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back.”‘
‘”If a man be endowed with a generous mind, this is the best kind of nobility.”‘
‘”One cannot make a slave of a free person, for a free person is free even in a prison.”‘
‘”Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.”‘
‘”People are like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die.”‘
‘”The worst form of injustice is pretended justice.”‘
‘”There is nothing so delightful as the hearing, or the speaking of truth. For this reason, there is no conversation so agreeable as that of the man of integrity, who hears without any intention to betray, and speaks without any intention to deceive.”‘
‘”Mankind will never see an end of trouble until lovers of wisdom come to hold political power, or the holders of power become lovers of wisdom”‘
‘”Man is a being in search of meaning.”‘
‘”The philosopher is in love with truth, that is, not with the changing world of sensation, which is the object of opinion, but with the unchanging reality which is the object of knowledge.”‘
‘”The laws of democracy remain a dead letter, its freedom is anarchy, its equality the equality of unequals”‘
‘”Music has the capacity to touch the innermost reaches of the soul and music gives flight to the imagination.”‘
‘”To win over your bad self is the grandest and foremost of victories.”‘
‘”Integrity is your destiny-it is the light that guides your way.”‘
‘”There are three classes of men; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain.”‘
‘”Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.”‘
‘”True friendship can exist only between equals.”‘
‘”A tyrant… is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.”‘,
‘”You ought not to heal the body without the soul, for this is the great error of our day in treating the human body.”‘
‘”A good decision is based on knowledge, and not on numbers.”‘
‘”Money-makers are tiresome company, as they have no standard but cash value.”‘
‘”He who is of a calm and happy nature, will hardly feel the pressure of age”‘
‘”One man cannot practice many arts with success.”‘
‘”Education is teaching our children to desire the right things.”‘
‘”It is through geometry that one purifies the eye of the soul.”‘
‘”Nothing ever is, everything is becoming.”‘
‘”You cannot go into the same water twice.”‘
‘”Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.”‘
‘”A man is not learned until he can read, write and swim.”‘
‘”Pleasure is the bait of sin”‘
‘”Love is a grave mental illness.”‘
‘”The first step in learning is the destruction of human conceit.”‘
‘”Arguments derived from probabilities are idle.”‘
‘”I fast for greater physical and mental efficiency”‘
‘”Take charge of your thoughts. You can do what you will with them”‘
‘”Ignorance, the root and the stem of every evil.”‘
‘”Education is the constraining and directing of youth towards that right reason, which the law affirms, and which the experience of the best of our elders has agreed to be truly right.”‘
‘”There is truth in wine and children”‘
‘”No one is a friend to his friend who does not love in return.”‘
‘”To a good man nothing that happens is evil.”‘
‘”Maximize the power of the beliefs that strengthen you and neutralize those that weaken you.”‘
‘”A house that has a library in it has a soul.”‘
‘”Physical excellence does not of itself produce a good mind and character: on the other hand, excellence of mind and character will make the best of the physique it is given.”‘
‘”Only the dead have seen the end of war.”‘
‘”There is no harm in repeating a good thing.”‘
‘”In an honest man there is always something of a child.”‘
‘”The cure of many diseases is unknown to physicians because they are ignorant of the whole… For the part can never be well unless the whole is well.”‘
‘”No man should be angry with what is true.”‘
‘”The blame is his who chooses: God is blameless.”‘
‘”Complacent ignorance is the most lethal sickness of the soul”‘
‘”Wonder is the feeling of the philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.”‘
‘”The real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”‘
‘”Knowledge of the soul is the only universal truth and the only wisdom – all other knowledge is transient.”‘
‘”The noblest of all studies is the study of what man is and of what life he should live.”‘
‘”The excessive increase of anything causes a reaction in the opposite direction.”‘
‘”No man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nature and education.”‘
‘”Democracy leads to anarchy, which is mob rule.”‘
‘”Friends should have all things in common.”‘
‘”When the mind is thinking it is talking to itself.”‘
‘”Access to power must be confined to those who are not in love with it.”‘
‘”The wrong use of a thing is far worse than the non-use.”‘
‘”Courage is knowing what to fear.”‘
‘”The most important stage of any enterprise is the beginning.”‘
‘”Love is a serious mental disease.”‘
‘”Knowledge is the rediscovering of our own insight.”‘
‘”A wise ignorance is an essential part of knowledge.”‘
‘”No one can escape his destiny.”‘
‘”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.”‘
‘”The cure of the part should not be attempted without the cure of the whole.”‘
‘”The wolf cares not, how many the sheep be.”‘
‘”Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable.”‘
‘”A dog has the soul of a philosopher.”‘
‘”The soul of man is immortal and imperishable.”‘
‘”Only those who do not seek power are qualified to hold it.”‘
‘”Necessity is literally the mother of invention.”‘
‘”There should exist among the citizens neither extreme poverty nor again excessive wealth, for both are productive of great evil.”‘
‘”All men, well interrogated, answer well.”‘
‘”The highest form of pure thought is in mathematics.”‘
‘”Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue.”‘
‘”The proud man is forsaken of God.”‘
‘”He who wishes to serve his country must have not only the power to think, but the will to act”‘
‘”Numbers are the highest degree of knowledge. It is knowledge itself.”‘
‘”Everything changes and nothing remains still.”‘
‘”Come then, and let us pass a leisure hour in storytelling, and our story shall be the education of our heroes.”‘
‘”Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety.”‘
‘”Education and admonition commence in the first years of childhood, and last to the very end of life.”‘
‘”Each man is capable of doing one thing well. If he attempts several, he will fail to achieve distinction in any.”‘
‘”The beginning is the most important part…for that is the time character is being formed.”‘
‘”If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life.”‘
‘”The highest reach of injustice is to be deemed just when you are not.”‘
‘”Attention to health is life greatest hindrance.”‘
‘”No evil can happen to a good man either in life or after death.”‘
‘”Atheism is a disease of the soul before it becomes an error of understanding.”‘
‘”To do injustice is the greatest of all evils.”‘
‘”Better to be unborn than untaught, for ignorance is the root of all misfortune.”‘
‘”My plainness of speech makes people hate me, and what is their hatred but a proof that I am speaking the truth.”‘
‘”Democracy passes into despotism.”‘
‘”The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being.”‘
‘”Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul”‘
‘”When a man drinks wine at dinner, he begins to be better pleased with himself.”‘
‘”Music then is simply the result of the effects of Love on rhythm and harmony.”‘
‘”Each citizen should play his part in the community according to his individual gifts.”‘
‘”Madness is a divine release of the soul from the yoke of custom and convention.”‘
‘”Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself.”‘
‘”The eyes of the soul of the multitudes are unable to endure the vision of the divine.”‘
‘”The rulers of the state are the only persons who ought to have the privilege of lying, either at home or abroad; they may be allowed to lie for the good of the state.”‘
‘”Our object in the construction of the state is the greatest happiness of the whole, and not that of any one class.”‘
‘”The gods created certain kinds of beings to replenish our bodies… they are the trees and the plants and the seeds.”‘
‘”It is right to give every man his due.”‘
‘”Music is a defining element of character.”‘
‘”No human thing is of serious importance.”‘
‘”Music gives a soul to the universe.”‘
‘”I do not live to play, but I play in order that I may live, and return with greater zest to the labors of life.”‘
‘”The most important part of education is proper training in the nursery.”‘
‘”As the builders say, the larger stones do not lie well without the lesser.”‘
‘”No one is so cowardly that Love could not inspire him to heroism.”‘
‘”Whatever deceives men seems to produce a magical enchantment.”‘
‘”The soul takes flight to the world that is invisible but there arriving she is sure of bliss and forever dwells in paradise.”‘
‘”Lessons, however, that enter the soul against its will never grow roots and will never be preserved inside it.”‘
‘”Many men are loved by their enemies, and hated by their friends, and are the friends of their enemies, and the enemies of their friends.”‘
‘”When there is crime in society, there is no justice.”‘
‘”We should not exercise the body without the joint assistance of the mind; nor exercise the mind without the joint assistance of the body.”‘
‘”The whole life of the philosopher is a preparation for death.”‘
‘”Not to help justice in her need would be an impiety.”‘
‘”Wealth and poverty; one is the parent of luxury and indolence, and the other of meanness and viciousness, and both of discontent.”‘
‘”Knowledge becomes evil if the aim be not virtuous.”‘
‘”The man who hath music in his soul will be most in love with the loveliest.”‘
‘”No attempt should be made to cure the body without the soul”‘
‘”Kindness which is bestowed on the good is never lost.”‘
‘”God is not the author of all things, but of good only.”‘
‘”To escape from evil we must be made as far as possible like God; and the resemblance consists in becoming just and holy and wise.”‘
‘”Wonder is the beginning of the desire to know the beautiful and the good”‘
‘”The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life.”‘
‘”There is far greater peril in buying knowledge than in buying meat and drink.”‘
‘”All loves should be simply stepping stones to the love of God. So it was with me; and blessed be his name for his great goodness and mercy.”‘
‘”We do not learn; and what we call learning is only a process of recollection.”‘
‘”To love rightly is to love what is orderly and beautiful in an educated and disciplined way.”‘
‘”Let nobody speak mischief of anybody.”‘
‘”The object of knowledge is what exists and its function to know about reality.”‘
‘”Love is the pursuit of the whole.”‘
‘”To be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile.”‘
‘”No one ever teaches well who wants to teach, or governs well who wants to govern.”‘
‘”All I really know is the extent of my own ignorance”‘
‘”You can remember, a single deluge only, but there were many previous ones.”‘
‘”That a guardian should require another guardian to take care of him is ridiculous indeed.”‘
‘”Necessity, who is the mother of our invention.”‘
‘”There must always remain something that is antagonistic to good.”‘
‘”Twice and thrice over, as they say, good is it to repeat and review what is good.”‘
‘”Abstinence is the surety of temperance.”‘
‘”Let praise be given equally to women as well as men who have been distinguished in virtue.”‘
‘”A fit of laughter, which has been indulged to excess, almost always produces a violent reaction.”‘
‘”To fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise without really being wise, for it is to think that we know what we do not know.”‘
‘”Democracy does not contain any force which will check the constant tendency to put more and more on the public payroll. The state is like a hive of bees in which the drones display, multiply and starve the workers so the idlers will consume the food and the workers will perish.”‘
‘”There is in every one of us, even those who seem to be most moderate, a type of desire that is terrible, wild, and lawless.”‘
‘”Music is a more potent instrument than any other for education.”‘
‘”Most people affirm pleasure to be the good, but the finer sort of wits say it is knowledge.”‘
‘”He who can properly define and divide is to be considered a god.”‘
‘”When men speak ill of thee, live so that nobody will believe them.”‘
‘”Wise men speak because they have something to say”‘
‘”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.”‘
‘”It is fear and terror that make all men brave, except the philosophers. Yet it is illogical to be brave through fear and cowardice.”‘
‘”No one knows whether death is really the greatest blessing a man can have, but they fear it is the greatest curse, as if they knew well.”‘
‘”Be kind, for everyone is having a hard battle.”‘
‘”Justice is nothing more than the advantage of the stronger.”‘
‘”Because it is correct to make a priority of young people, taking care that they turn out as well as possible.”‘
‘”This world is indeed a living being endowed with a soul and intelligence … a single visible living entity containing all other living entities, which by their nature are all related.”‘
‘”Love is an intermediate state between possession and deprivation.”‘
‘”Love consists in feeling the Sacred One beating inside the loved one.”‘
‘”The only real ill-doing is the deprivation of knowledge.”‘
‘”If there is no contradictory impression, there is nothing to awaken reflection”‘
‘”The judge should not be young, he should have learned to know evil, not from his own soul, but from late and long observation of the nature of evil in others.”‘
‘”Love is a madness produced by an unsatisfiable rational desire to understand the ultimate truth about the world.”‘
‘”Not only is the old man twice a child, but also the man who is drunk.”‘
‘”The community which has neither poverty nor riches will always have the noblest principles.”‘
‘”For all good and evil, whether in the body or in human nature, originates … in the soul, and overflows from thence, as from the head into the eyes.”‘
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