Plato Quotes

Discordance is evil. Harmony is virtue.

God ever geometrizes.

I must yield to you, for you are irresistible.

Socrates isguilty of corrupting the minds of the young, and of believing indeities of his own invention instead of the gods recognized by the state.

There are some whom the applause of the multitude has deluded into the belief that they are really statesmen.

Mariner, do not ask whose tomb this may be, but go with good fortune: I wish you a kinder sea.

Of all the Gods, Love is the best friend of humankind, the helper and healer of all ills that stand in the way of human happiness.

No trace of slavery ought to mix with the studies of the freeborn man. No study, pursued under compulsion, remains rooted in the memory.

God forever geometrizes.

That politician who curries favor with the citizens and indulges them and fawns upon them and has a presentiment of their wishes, and is skillful in gratifying them, he is esteemed a great statesman.

Man never legislates,but destinies and accidents,happening in all sorts of ways,legislate in all sorts of ways.

Musical innovation is full of danger to the State, for when modes of music change, the laws of the State always change with them.

The only thing worse than suffering an injustice is committing an injustice.

Everywhere there is one principle of justice, which is the interest of the stronger.

[The Cretans have] more wit than words.

. . . 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. . . .

There are three arts which are concerned with all things: one which uses, another which makes, and a third which imitates them.

The God of Love lives in a state of need.

The function of the wing is to take what is heavy and raise it up in the region above.

Such, Echecrates, was the end of our comrade, who was, we may fairly say, of all those whom we knew in our time, the bravest and also the wisest and most upright man.

In good speaking, should not the mind of the speaker know the truth of the matter about which he is to speak.

All things are in fate, yet all things are not decreed by fate.

One trait in the philosopher's character we can assume is his love of the knowledge that reveals eternal reality, the realm unaffected by change and decay.

Just as things in a picture, when viewed from a distance, appear to be all in one and the same condition and alike.

Arithmetic is a kind of knowledge in which the best natures should be trained, and which must not be given up.

Remember our words, then, and whatever is your aim let virtue be the condition of the attainment of your aim, and know that without this all possessions and pursuits are dishonourable and evil.

Thinking and spoken discourse are the same thing, except that what we call thinking is, precisely, the inward dialogue carried on by the mind with itself without spoken sound.

The true runner comes to the finish and receives the prize and is crowned.

It is correct to make a priority of young people, taking care that they turn out as well as possible.

The poets are nothing but interpreters of the gods, each one possessed by the divinity to whom he is in bondage.

For this feeling of wonder shows that you are a philosopher, since wonder is the only beginning of philosophy.

The heaviest penalty for deciding to engage in politics is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself.

For good nurture and education implant good constitutions.

Then not only custom, but also nature affirms that to do is more disgraceful than to suffer injustice, and that justice is equality.

If it feels right and I'm not going against any energy in myself or the situation, there would be no limit.

Friends should have all things in common.

To be at once exceedingly wealthy and good is impossible.

I will prove by my life that my critics are liars.

The good is the beautiful.

Education is the constraining and directing of youth towards that right reason, which the law affirms, and which the experience of the best of our elders has agreed to be truly right.

Fly from the company of the wicked--fly and turn not back.

Arguments derived from probabilities are idle.

The beginning is half of the whole.

To do injustice is the greatest of all evils.

To suffer the penalty of too much haste, which is too little speed.

The rulers of the state are the only persons who ought to have the privilege of lying, either at home or abroad; they may be allowed to lie for the good of the state.

I do not live to play, but I play in order that I may live, and return with greater zest to the labors of life.

All men, well interrogated, answer well.

I am not given to finding fault, for there are innumerable fools.

Love: a grave mental disease.