Plato Quotes

Ignorance, the root and the stem of every evil.

Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself.

A good decision is based on knowledge, and not on numbers.

There should exist among the citizens neither extreme poverty nor again excessive wealth, for both are productive of great evil.

The people always have some champion whom they set over them and nurse into greatness. ... This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.

In politics we presume that everyone who knows how to get votes knows how to administer a city or a state. When we are ill... we do not ask for the handsomest physician, or the most eloquent one.

The worst of all deceptions is self-deception.

The penalty that good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by men worse than themselves.

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

Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow... even if that someone is yourself!

No one ever dies an atheist.

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

He is unworthy of the name of man who is ignorant of the fact that the diagonal of a square is incommensurable with its side.

The three wishes of every man: to be healthy, to be rich by honest means, and to be beautiful.

Money-makers are tiresome company, as they have no standard but cash value.

The essence of knowledge is self-knowledge.

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.

Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable.

The gods created certain kinds of beings to replenish our bodies... they are the trees and the plants and the seeds.

Man is a being in search of meaning.

Twice and thrice over, as they say, good is it to repeat and review what is good.

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.

No man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nature and education.

And isn't it a bad thing to be deceived about the truth, and a good thing to know what the truth is? For I assume that by knowing the truth you mean knowing things as they really are.

No man should be angry with what is true.

The highest form of pure thought is in mathematics.

The real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.

Just as bees make honey from thyme, the strongest and driest of herbs, so do the wise profit from the most difficult of experiences.

The purpose of education is to give to the body and to the soul all the beauty and all the perfection of which they are capable.

Love is a serious mental disease.

Watch a man at play for an hour and you can learn more about him than in talking to him for a year.

The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.

A good education is another name for happiness.

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?

Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on Simplicity.

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

A house that has a library in it has a soul.

Physical excellence does not of itself produce a good mind and character: on the other hand, excellence of mind and character will make the best of the physique it is given.

When the mind is thinking it is talking to itself.

We obtain better knowledge of a person during one hour's play and games than by conversing with him for a whole year

The qualities which a man seeks in his beloved are those characteristics of his own soul, whether he knows it or not.

People are like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die.

I prefer nothing, unless it is true.

At the touch of love, everyone is a poet.

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

Better a little which is well done, than a great deal imperfectly.

The noblest of all studies is the study of what man is and of what life he should live.

It is better to be wise, and not to seem so, than to seem wise, and not be so; yet men, for the most part, desire the contrary.

Better to be unborn than untaught, for ignorance is the root of all misfortune.

A grateful mind is a great mind which eventually attracts to itself great things.