Plato Quotes

"Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."

"The unexamined life is not worth living."

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

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle."

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

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

"Thinking is the talking of the soul with itself."

"Courage is knowing what not to fear."

"Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others."

"Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder."

"At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet."

"Love is the joy of the good, the wonder of the wise, the amazement of the gods."

"Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination."

"The beginning is the most important part of the work."

"Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance."

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

"Justice means minding one's own business and not meddling with other men's concerns."

"The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself."

"Necessity is the mother of invention."

"Time is the moving image of eternity."

"Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back."

"Humanity is never so beautiful as when praying for forgiveness, or else forgiving another."

"The measure of a man is what he does with power."

"Those who tell the stories rule society."

"Only the dead have seen the end of war."

"False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil."

"The soul takes nothing with her to the next world but her education and her culture."

"To prefer evil to good is not in human nature."

"The greatest wealth is to live content with little."

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

"One must not, even when wronged, do wrong in return, nor mistreat any man, whatever we may have suffered from him."

"To fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise, without being wise."

"I do not think I know what I do not know."

"Virtue does not come from money, but from virtue comes money and every other good of man."

"Care more for the truth than for what people think."

"Justice is doing one's own work and not meddling with what isn't your own."

"The beginning is the most important part of any work."

"Let us not become haters of argument, for that is one of the greatest evils."

"To be afraid of death is only another form of thinking that one is wise when one is not."

"Human life must be lived in accordance with reason and justice."

"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws."

"Extreme freedom seems to change into nothing but extreme slavery."

"The truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images."

"Love is the desire for the perpetual possession of the good."

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

"Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, cities will never have rest from their evils."

"The good is the beautiful."

"Knowledge becomes evil if the aim be not virtuous."

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

"The most important part of education is proper training in the nursery."

"Not living, but living well, is to be prized most."

"One must never do wrong in return, nor injure any man, whatever injury one has suffered from him."

"I am not only not a citizen of Athens or Greece, but of the world."

"I would rather suffer anything than speak what I do not believe."

"If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life."

"The greatest of all misfortunes is to be incapable of bearing misfortune."

"Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds."

"Every soul is immortal, for the ever-moving is immortal."

"To be sure, the soul is immortal and imperishable, and our souls will truly exist in another world."

"The good are willing to rule only because they are unwilling to be ruled by the worse."

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

"Democracy comes into being when the poor, winning the victory, grant the citizens an equal share in citizenship and public offices."

"In a democracy, there is liberty and freedom of speech, and the freedom to do what one likes."

"Democracy has a pleasant constitution, full of variety, and an equality that treats equals and unequals alike."

"Freedom is the glory of the State."

"Excess of liberty, whether in States or individuals, seems only to pass into excess of slavery."

"The insatiable desire for freedom brings about the change from democracy to tyranny."

"Democracy is a form of government in which people may arrange their lives as they please."

"In a democratic state, there is the greatest variety of human characters."

"Democracy is a marketplace of constitutions, where a person may choose the form of government that suits them."

"When a democracy thirsts for freedom beyond what is fitting, it may become vulnerable to tyranny."

"The people always have some champion whom they set over them and nurse into greatness."

"A tyrant begins as a protector of the people."

"The excessive increase of anything often causes a reaction in the opposite direction."

"In a democracy, rulers and subjects may come to imitate one another."

"Wherever there is weakness in the State, there is also likely to be illness."

"A state must be governed with wisdom if it is to avoid the dangers of disorder."

"The just city depends on the character and conduct of its citizens."

"Political communities reflect the characters of the people who live in them."

"Democracy is a form of government in which liberty allows each person to shape their own life as they choose."

"Wonder is the beginning of wisdom."

"I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing."

"Philosophy begins in wonder."

"To be conscious of being, you need to be conscious of your own existence."

"Knowledge is the food of the soul."

"All learning has an emotional base."

"Knowledge is true opinion."

"To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge."

"The object of education is to teach us to love what is beautiful."

"Education is teaching our children to desire the right things."

"The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life."

"Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds."

"Learning is the process of becoming wiser about the things we study."

"Knowledge and wisdom are closely connected, for the wise understand what they know."

"What is knowledge? Can we answer that question?"

"True opinion is a good guide to correct action, even when it is not the same as knowledge."

"Knowledge is more valuable than true opinion when it is supported by an understanding of the reason why."

"All inquiry and all learning are a form of recollection."

"Do not assume that you know what you have not yet examined."

"The person who knows what they do not know is wiser than the person who falsely believes they know."