Plato Quotes on Wisdom & Knowledge (36 Quotes)

And whenever any one informs us that he has found a man who knows all the arts, and all things else that anybody knows, and every single thing with a higher degree of accuracy than any other man -whoever tells us this, I think that we can only imagine him to be a simple creature who is likely to have been deceived by some wizard or actor whom he met, and whom he thought all-knowing, because he himself was unable to analyze the nature of knowledge and ignorance and imitation.

Knowledge unqualified id knowledge simply of something learned.

Then we shan't regard anyone as a lover of knowledge or wisdom who is fussy about what he studies…

There's no chance of their having a conscious glimpse of the truth as long as they refuse to disturb the things they take for granted and remain incapable of explaining them. For if your starting-point is unknown, and your end-point and intermediate stages are woven together out of unknown material, there may be coherence, but knowledge is completely out of the question.

Love is the joy of the good, the wonder of the wise, the amazement of the Gods.

Knowledge is true opinion.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.

The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depends upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation, the man of manly character and of wisdom.

No law or ordinance is mightier than understanding.

He is a fool who cannot be angry but he is a wise man who will not.

We ought to fly away from earth to heaven as quickly as we can; and to fly away is to become like God, as far as this is possible; and to become like him is to become holy, just, and wise.

Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.

Knowledge without justice ought to be called cunning rather than wisdom.

Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.

In the world of knowledge, the essential Form of Good is the limit of our inquiries, and can barely be perceived but, when perceived, we cannot help concluding that it is in every case the source of all that is bright and beautiful --in the visible world giving birth to light and its master, and in the intellectual world dispensing, immediately and with full authority, truth and reason --and that whosoever would act wisely, either in private or in public, must set this Form of Good before his eyes.

The punishment suffered by the wise who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of bad men.

Knowledge becomes evil if the aim be not virtuous.

The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men.

Wisdom alone is the science of other sciences.

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

He was a wise man who invented beer.

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

The knowledge of which geometry aims is the knowledge of the eternal.

Perfect wisdom has four parts, viz., wisdom, the principle of doing things aright justice, the principle of doing things equally in public and private fortitude, the principle of not flying danger, but meeting it and temperance, the principle of subduing desires and living moderately.

That man is wisest who, like Socrates, realizes that his wisdom is worthless.

And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul.

The wise are doubtful.

Atheism is a disease of the soul, before it becomes an error of the understanding.

A hero is born among a hundred, a wise man is found among a thousand, but an accomplished one might not be found even among a hundred thousand men.

Perfect wisdom hath four parts wisdom, the principle of doing things right justice the principle of doing things equally in public and private fortitude, the principle of not fleeing danger, but meeting it and temperance, the principle of subdui