Plato Quotes

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

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

Science is nothing but perception.

~ Plato

Wisdom alone is the science of other sciences.

~ Plato

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

~ Plato

Death is not the worst that can happen to men.

~ Plato

Know one knows whether death, which people fear to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good.

~ 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

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

~ 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

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.

~ Plato

The learning and knowledge that we have, is, at the most, but little compared with that of which we are ignorant.

~ Plato

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

~ Plato

I would fain grow old learning many things.

~ 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

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

~ 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

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

~ Plato

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

~ Plato

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.

~ Plato

The blame is his who chooses: God is blameless.

~ Plato

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

~ Plato

Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.

~ Plato

Knowledge without justice ought to be called cunning rather than wisdom.

~ Plato

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

~ Plato

Knowledge is true opinion.

~ Plato

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

~ Plato

They certainly give very strange names to diseases.

~ Plato

Truth is the beginning of every good to the gods, and of every good to man.

~ Plato

Courage is a kind of salvation.

~ Plato

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

~ Plato

Attention to health is life's greatest hindrance.

~ Plato

We are twice armed if we fight with faith.

~ Plato

Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men.

~ Plato

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

~ Plato

Democracy passes into despotism.

~ Plato

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

~ Plato

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

~ Plato

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

~ Plato