Plato Quotes (310 Quotes)


    Man is a wingless animal with two feet and flat nails.

    The soul takes nothing with her to the other world but her education and culture and these, it is said, are of the greatest service or of the greatest injury to the dead man, at the very beginning of his journey hither.

    All the gold which is under or upon the earth is not enough to give in exchange for virtue.

    For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.

    The life which is not examined is not worth living.


    Those who intend on becoming great should love neither themselves nor their own things, but only what is just, whether it happens to be done by themselves or others.

    Whenever a person strives, by the help of dialectic, to start in pursuit of every reality by a simple process of reason, independent of all sensuous information never flinching, until by an act of the pure intelligence he has grasped the real nature of good he arrives at the very end of the intellectual world.

    All men are by nature equal, made all of the same earth by one Workman; and however we deceive ourselves, as dear unto God is the poor peasant as the mighty prince.

    Virtue is a kind of health, beauty and good habit of the soul.

    They deem him their worst enemy who tells them the truth.

    Let us describe the education of our men. What then is the education to be Perhaps we could hardly find a better than that which the experience of the past has already discovered, which consists, I believe, in gymnastic, for the body, and music for the mind.

    Beholding beauty with the eye of the mind, he will be enabled to bring forth, not images of beauty, but realities (for he has hold not of an image but of a reality), and bringing forth and nourishing true virtue to become the friend of God and be immortal, if mortal man may.

    When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them.

    Arguments derived from probabilities are idle.

    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.

    By education I mean that training in excellence from youth upward which makes a man passionately desire to be a perfect citizen, and teaches him to rule, and to obey, with justice. This is the only education which deserves the name.

    There are three classes of men; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain.

    In politics we presume that everyone who knows how to get votes knows how to administer a city or a state. When we are ill... we do not ask for the handsomest physician, or the most eloquent one.

    And now I depart hence condemned by you to suffer the penalty of death, and they, too, go their ways condemned by the truth to suffer the penalty of villainy and wrong and I must abide by my award - let them abide by theirs.

    He was a wise man who invented beer.

    To go to the world below, having a soul which is like a vessel full of injustice, is the last and worst of all the evils.

    Truth is its own reward.

    The beginning is the chiefest part of any work.

    No man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nature and education.

    Wealth is well known to be a great comforter.

    Man is a two-legged animal without feathers.

    If particulars are to have meaning, there must be universals.

    Let nobody speak mischief of anybody.

    It is a common saying, and in everybody's mouth, that life is but a sojourn.

    Hardly any human being is capable of pursuing two professions or two arts rightly.

    The true creator is necessity, who is the mother of our invention

    Truth is the beginning of every good to the gods, and of every good to man.

    ... Then anyone who leaves behind him a written manual, and likewise anyone who receives it, in the belief that such writing will be clear and certain, must be exceedingly simple-minded....

    We are twice armed if we fight with faith.

    Every king springs from a race of slaves, and every slave had kings among his ancestors.

    Abstinence is the surety of temperance.

    He is unworthy of the name of man who is ignorant of the fact that the diagonal of a square is incommensurable with its side.

    There still remain three studies suitable for free man. Arithmetic is one of them.

    Refrain from covetousness, and thy estate shall prosper.

    He who is not a good servant will not be a good master.

    Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil.

    The world is God's epistle to mankind - his thoughts are flashing upon us from every direction.

    Cunning... is but the low mimic of wisdom.

    The music masters familiarizes children's minds with rhythms and melodies, thus making them more civilized, more balanced, better adjusted in themselves, and more capable in whatever they say or do, for rhythm and harmony are essential to the whole o

    Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.

    ... you did not seem to me over-fond of money. And this is the way in general with those who have not made it themselves, while those who have are twice as fond of it as anyone else. For just as poets are fond of their own poems, and fathers of their own children, so money-makers become devoted to money, not only because, like other people, they find it useful, but because its their own creation.

    Life must be lived as play.

    It is right to give every man his due.

    The madness of love is the greatest of heaven's blessings.

    One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.


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