Quotes By Plato

Ignorance of all things is an evil neither terrible nor excessive, nor yet the greatest of all; but great cleverness and much learning, if they be accompanied by a bad training, are a much greater misfortune.

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

The gods' service is tolerable, man's intolerable.

There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.

Injustice is censured because the censures are afraid of suffering, and not from any fear which they have of doing injustice.

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

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

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

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

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

Philosophy is the highest music.

Knowledge becomes evil if the aim be not virtuous.

The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men.

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

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

Poets utter great and wise things which they do not themselves understand.

At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.

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.

Only the dead have seen the end of war.

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

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.

The good is the beautiful.

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?

I would fain grow old learning many things.

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

The curse of me and my nation is that we always think things can be bettered by immediate action of some sort, any sort rather than no sort.

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

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

Justice in the life and conduct of the State is possible only as first it resides in the hearts and souls of the citizens.

It is a common saying, and in everybody's mouth, that life is but a sojourn.