Famous Plato Quotations

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"He who is of calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age, but to him who is of an opposite disposition youth and age are equally a burden."
by Plato
"Science is nothing but perception."
by Plato
"Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety."
by Plato
"No man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nature and education."
by Plato
"No law or ordinance is mightier than understanding."
by Plato
"No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death."
by Plato
"I have hardly ever known a mathematician who was capable of reasoning."
by Plato
"Must not all things at the last be swallowed up in death?"
by Plato
"Knowledge is true opinion."
by Plato
"Ignorance of all things is an evil neither terrible nor excessive, nor yet the greatest of all; but great cleverness and much learning, if they be accompanied by a bad training, are a much greater misfortune."
by Plato
"Philosophy is the highest music."
by Plato
"They certainly give very strange names to diseases."
by Plato
"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."
by Plato
"Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another."
by Plato
"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."
by Plato
"A kiss, and touch of lips; not strange my Soul should cling - Strive to cross, weep to turn, and starve with me poor thing"
by Plato
"Those who seek power are not worthy of that power."
by Plato
"We ought to esteem it of the greatest importance that the fictions which children first hear should be adapted in the most perfect manner to the promotion of virtue."
by Plato
"Wealth is well known to be a great comforter."
by Plato
"When the mind is thinking it is talking to itself."
by Plato
"Attention to health is life greatest hindrance."
by Plato
"Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty."
by Tyranny
"For good nurture and education implant good constitutions."
by Plato
"If I were again beginning my studies, I would follow the advice of Plato and start with mathematics."
by Anonymous
"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."
by Plato
"Knowledge becomes evil if the aim be not virtuous."
by Plato
"Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence."
by Plato
"Nothing can be more absurd than the practice that prevails in our country of men and women not following the same pursuits with all their strengths and with one mind, for thus, the state instead of being whole is reduced to half."
by Plato
"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors."
by Plato
"Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men."
by Plato
"Philosophy does not regard pedigree, she received Plato not as a noble, but she made him one."
by Anonymous
"Poetry comes nearer to vital truth than history."
by Plato
"Justice means minding one's own business and not meddling with other men's concerns."
by Plato
"The beginning is the most important part of the work."
by Plato
"Hereditary honors are a noble and a splendid treasure to descendants."
by Ancestry, Ancestors
"For the introduction of a new kind of music must be shunned as imperiling the whole state; since styles of music are never disturbed without affecting the most important political institutions."
by Plato
"Death is not the worst that can happen to men."
by Plato
"A good education is another name for happiness."
by Ann Plato
"All thought is naught but a footnote to Plato."
by George Santayana
"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."
by Plato
"But, my dearest Agathon, it is truth which you cannot contradict; you can without any difficulty contradict Socrates."
by Plato, in Symposium
"Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind."
by Plato
"The curse of me and my nation is that we always think things can be bettered by immediate action of some sort, any sort rather than no sort."
by Action(s)
"There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot."
by Plato
"...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..."
by Plato
"A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers."
by Plato
"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."
by Plato
"A man who is eating or lying with his wife or preparing to go to sleep in humility, thankfulness and temperance, is, by Christian standards, in an infinitely higher state than one who is listening to Bach or reading Plato in a state of pride."
by Clive Staples Lewis
"A state arises, as I conceive, out of the needs of mankind; no one is self-sufficing, but all of us have many wants."
by Plato
"All the gold which is under or upon the earth is not enough to give in exchange for virtue."
by Plato
"And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul."
by Plato
"Any man may easily do harm, but not every man can do good to another."
by Plato
"Apply yourself both now and in the next life. Without effort, you cannot be prosperous. Though the land be good, You cannot have an abundant crop without cultivation."
by Plato
"As empty vessels make the loudest sound, so they that have least with are the greatest babblers."
by Plato
"As the builders say, the larger stones do not lie well without the lesser."
by Plato
"Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another"
by Plato
"Attention to health is life's greatest hindrance."
by Plato
"At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet."
by Plato
"At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet."
by Plato
"Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity."
by Plato
"Better a little which is well done, than a great deal imperfectly."
by Plato
"Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind."
by Plato
"But already it is time to depart, for me to die, for you to go on living; which of us takes the better course, is concealed from anyone except God."
by Socrates
"Courage is a kind of salvation."
by Plato
"Cunning... is but the low mimic of wisdom."
by Plato
"Death is not the worst than can happen to men."
by Plato
"Democracy... is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder; and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike."
by Plato
"Democracy passes into despotism."
by Plato
"Entire ignorance is not so terrible or extreme an evil, and is far from being the greatest of all; too much cleverness and too much learning, accompanied with ill bringing-up, are far more fatal."
by Plato
"Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet."
by Plato
"Every theory of love, from Plato down, teaches that each individual loves in the other sex what he lacks in himself."
by G. Stanley Hall
"Excess of liberty, whether it lies in state or individuals, seems only to pass into excess of slavery."
by Plato
"Excess generally causes reaction, and produces a change in the opposite direction, whether it be in the seasons, or in individuals, or in governments."
by Plato
"Excellent things are rare."
by Plato
"Everything that deceives may be said to enchant."
by Plato
"False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil."
by Plato
"For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories."
by Plato
"For this invention of yours will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn it, by causing them to neglect their memory, inasmuch as, from their confidence in writing, they will recollect by the external aid of foreign symbols, and not by the internal use of their own faculties. Your discovery, therefore, is a medicine not for memory, but for recollection-for recalling to, not for keeping in mind."
by Plato
"Friends have all things in common."
by Plato
"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws."
by Plato
"Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others."
by Plato
"Hardly any human being is capable of pursuing two professions or two arts rightly."
by Plato
"He who does not desire power is fit to hold it."
by Plato
"He who commits injustice is ever made more wretched than he who suffers it."
by Plato
"He was a wise man who invented God."
by Plato
"He was a wise man who invented beer."
by Plato
"He who steals a little steals with the same wish as he who steals much, but with less power."
by Plato
"He who is of calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age, but to him who is of an opposite disposition youth and age are equally a burden"
by Plato
"He who is not a good servant will not be a good master."
by Plato
"He who not being inspired and having no touch of madness in his soul comes to the door and thinkshe will get into the temple by the help of art - he, I say, and his poetry are not admitted."
by Plato
"Honesty is for the most part, less profitable than dishonesty."
by Plato
"Honesty is for the most part less profitable than dishonesty."
by Plato
"How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?"
by Plato
"Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge"
by Plato
"Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge."
by Plato
"I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly conflict."
by Plato
"I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly combat."
by Plato
"I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work."
by Plato
"I shall assume that your silence gives consent."
by Plato
"I would fain grow old learning many things."
by Plato


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