Plato Quotes

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

A state arises, as I conceive, out of the needs of mankind; no one is self-sufficing, but all of us have many wants.
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.
Plato

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

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.
Plato

And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul.
Plato

Any man may easily do harm, but not every man can do good to another.
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.
Plato

As the builders say, the larger stones do not lie well without the lesser.
Plato

Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another.
Plato

At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.
Plato

Attention to health is life greatest hindrance.
Plato

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

Courage is a kind of salvation.
Plato

Courage is knowing what not to fear.
Plato

Cunning... is but the low mimic of wisdom.
Plato

Death is not the worst that can happen to men.
Plato

Democracy passes into despotism.
Plato

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

Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.
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.
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.
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.
Plato

Excess of liberty, whether it lies in state or individuals, seems only to pass into excess of slavery.
Plato

For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.
Plato

For good nurture and education implant good constitutions.
Plato

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.
Plato

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

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

Hardly any human being is capable of pursuing two professions or two arts rightly.
Plato

He was a wise man who invented beer.
Plato

He who commits injustice is ever made more wretched than he who suffers it.
Plato

He who is not a good servant will not be a good master.
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.
Plato

He who steals a little steals with the same wish as he who steals much, but with less power.
Plato

Honesty is for the most part less profitable than dishonesty.
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?
Plato

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

Life must be lived as play.
Plato

Love is a serious mental disease.
Plato

Love is the joy of the good, the wonder of the wise, the amazement of the Gods.
Plato

Man - a being in search of meaning.
Plato

Man is a wingless animal with two feet and flat nails.
Plato

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

Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.
Plato

Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue.
Plato

Must not all things at the last be swallowed up in death?
Plato

Necessity... the mother of invention.
Plato

No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.
Plato

No law or ordinance is mightier than understanding.
Plato

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

No one ever teaches well who wants to teach, or governs well who wants to govern.
Plato

No one is a friend to his friend who does not love in return.
Plato

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

Not to help justice in her need would be an impiety.
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.
Plato

Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety.
Plato

One man cannot practice many arts with success.
Plato

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