Plato Quotes (310 Quotes)


    As the builders say, the larger stones do not lie well without the lesser.

    Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.

    The noblest of all studies is the study of what man is and of what life he should live.

    Whatever deceives men seems to produce a magical enchantment.

    Medicine is an art, and attends to the nature and constitution of the patient, and has principles of action And reason in each case.


    Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.

    Science is nothing but perception.

    The partisan, when he is engaged in a dispute, cares nothing about the rights of the question, but is anxious only to convince his hearers of his own assertions.

    Democracy, which is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.

    To do injustice is more disgraceful than to suffer it.

    We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.

    Mathematics is like checkers in being suitable for the young, not too difficult, amusing, and without peril to the state.

    Someday, in the distant future, our grandchildren's grandchildren will develop a new equivalent of our classrooms. They will spend many hours in front of boxes with fires glowing within. May they have the wisdom to know the difference between light and knowledge.

    Whether these matters are to be regarded as sport, or as earnest, we must not forget that this pleasure is held to have been granted by nature to male and female when conjoined for the work of procreation the crime of male with male, or female with

    Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another.

    Lord of Lords, grant us the good whether we pray for it or not, but evil keep from us, even though we pray for it.

    All things will be produced in superior quantity and quality, and with greater ease, when each man works at a single occupation, in accordance with his natural gifts, and at the right moment, without meddling with anything else.

    He who commits injustice is ever made more wretched than he who suffers it.

    There is no harm in repeating a good thing.

    The blame is his who chooses: God is blameless.

    All learning has an emotional base.

    Books are immortal sons deifying their sires.

    He who steals a little steals with the same wish as he who steals much, but with less power.

    It is as expedient that a wicked man be punished as that a sick man be cured by a physician for all chastisement is a kind of medicine.

    When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing more to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.

    Moderation, which consists in an indifference about little things, and in a prudent and well-proportioned zeal about things of importance, can proceed from nothing but true knowledge, which has its foundation in self-acquaintance.

    It is clear to everyone that astronomy at all events compels the soul to look upwards, and draws it from the things of this world to the other.

    Grant that I may become beautiful in my soul within, and that all my external possessions may be in harmony with my inner self. May I consider the wise to be rich, and may I have such riches as only a person of self-restraint can bear or endure.

    A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.

    Old age has a great sense of calm and freedom. When the passions have relaxed their hold and have escaped, not from one master, but from many.

    The first and best victory is to conquer self to be conquered by self is of all things most shameful and vile.

    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

    Whence comes war and fighting, and factions Whence but from the body and the lust of the body Wars are occasioned by the love of money, and money has to be acquired for the same and service of the body.

    Must not all things at the last be swallowed up in death?

    Few men are so obstinate in their atheism, that a pressing danger will not compel them to the acknowledgement of a divine power.

    Death is not the worst that can happen to men.

    They certainly give very strange names to diseases.

    There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.

    My philosophy is when in Rome, do like the Romans do - so I'll be looking cool, talking to pretty women and eating ice cream. At least I'm quite good at doing two of those things

    To the rulers of the state then, if to any, it belongs of right to use falsehood, to deceive either enemies or their own citizens, for the good of the state and no one else may meddle with this privilege.

    For that is, and ever will be, the best of sayings that the useful is the noble and the hurtful is the base

    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.

    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.

    The wisest have the most authority.

    As empty vessels make the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers.

    I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly conflict.

    To be curious about that which is not one's concern while still in ignorance of oneself is ridiculous.

    Necessity, who is the mother of invention.

    Love is a serious mental disease.

    The greatest penalty of evildoing namely, to grow into the likeness of bad men.


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