Plato Quotes

He, O men, is the wisest, who, like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing.

I do not think it is permitted that a better man be harmed by a worse.

Love is simply the name for the desire and pursuit of the whole.

Those who practice philosophy in the right way are in training for dying and they fear death least of all men.

For the rhapsode ought to interpret the mind of the poet to his hearers, but how can he interpret him well unless he knows what he means?

Some thoughtlessly proclaim the Muses nine: A tenth is Sappho, maid divine.

Socrates said that, from above, the Earth looks like one of those twelve-patched leathern balls.

Let early education be a sort of amusement. You will then be better able to find out the natural bent.

Harmony is a symphony, and symphony is an agreement; but an agreement of disagreements while they disagree there cannot be; you cannot harmonize that which disagrees.

The wisdom of men is worth little or nothing.

We do not learn, and that what we call learning is only a process of recollection.

Even in reaching for the beautiful there is beauty, and also in suffering whatever it is that one suffers en route.

Poets do not compose their poems with knowledge, but by some inborn talent and by inspiration, like seers and prophets who also say many fine things without any understanding of what they say.

Human beings have Love for one another inborn in them - Love, reassembler of our ancient nature, who tries to make one out of two and to heal human nature.

Not every love, but only that which has a noble purpose, is noble and worthy of praise.

Observe that open loves are held to be more honourable than secret ones, and that the love of the noblest and highest, even if their persons are less beautiful than others, is especially honourable.

And if we are good, we are beneficent: for all good things are beneficial. Are they not?

Madness comes from God, whereas sober sense is merely human.

Until philosophers hold power, neither states nor individuals will have rest from trouble.

No one knows whether death may not be the greatest good that can happen to man.

The love of the gods belongs to anyone who has given to true virtue and nourished it, and if any human being could become immortal, it would be he.

But of the heaven which is above the heavens, what earthly poet ever did or ever will sing worthily?

To fear death, gentlemen, is no other then to think oneself wise when one is not, to think one knows what one does not know.

Love is a great spirit. Everything spiritual is in between god and mortal.

People regard the same things, some as just and others as unjust, - about these they dispute; and so there arise wars and fightings among them.

Athenian men, I respect and love you, but I shall obey the god rather than you.

Where it is a general rule that it is wrong to gratify lovers, this can be attributed to the defects of those who make that rule: the government's lust for rule and the subjects' cowardice.

Where reverence is, there is fear; for he who has a feeling of reverence and shame about the commission of any action, fears and is afraid of an ill reputation.

The Graces sought some holy ground, Whose sight should ever please; And in their search the soul they found Of Aristophanes.

Of all the things which a man has, next to the gods his soul is the most divine and most truly his own.

You're my Star, a stargazer too, and I wish that I were Heaven, with a billion eyes to look at you!

The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.

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

How could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads?

Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul.

let the speaker speak truly and the judge decide justly.

Piety, then, is that which is dear to the gods, and impiety is that which is not dear to them.

Socrates: This man, on one hand, believes that he knows something, while not knowing [anything]. On the other hand, I – equally ignorant – do not believe [that I know anything].

He was a wise man who invented God.

We reveal ourselves in the metaphors we choose for depicting the cosmos in miniature.

Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.

Calligraphy is a geometry of the soul which manifests itself physically.

A poet, you see, is a light thing, and winged and holy, and cannot compose before he gets inspiration and loses control of his senses and his reason has deserted him.

Knowledge is the food of the soul.

Those who don't know must learn from those who do.

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

Knowledge unqualified is knowledge simply of something learned.

Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance

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

For, let me tell you that the more the pleasures of the body fade away, the greater to me are the pleasure and charm of conversation.