Plato Quotes

If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools.

A wise man speaks because he has something to say; a fool because he has to say something.

No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.

Don't force your children into your ways, for they were created for a time different from your own.

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

Reality is created by the mind, we can change our reality by changing our mind.

Enjoy life. There's plenty of time to be dead. Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.

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

Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.

The one who learns and learns and doesn't practice is like the one who plows and plows and never plants.

Someday, in the distant future, our grand-children' s grand-children will develop a new equivalent of our classrooms. They will spend many hours in front of boxes with fires glowing within. May they have the wisdom to know the difference between light and knowledge.

Excellence" is not a gift, but a skill that takes practice. We do not act "rightly" because we are "excellent", in fact we achieve "excellence" by acting "rightly".

Be kind. Every person you meet is fighting a difficult battle.

The first and the best victory is to conquer self.

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

When you feel grateful, you become great, and eventually attract great things.

Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood let alone believed by the masses.

The right question is usually more important than the right answer.

Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back.

The souls of people, on their way to Earth-life, pass through a room full of lights; each takes a taper - often only a spark - to guide it in the dim country of this world. But some souls, by rare fortune, are detained longer - have time to grasp a handful of tapers, which they weave into a torch. These are the torch-bearers of humanity - its poets, seers and saints, who lead and lift the race out of darkness, toward the light. They are the law-givers and saviors, the light-bringers, way-showers and truth-tellers, and without them, humanity would lose its way in the dark.

I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.

He who is of a calm and happy nature, will hardly feel the pressure of age

Only the dead have seen the end of war.

If we are to have any hope for the future, those who have lanterns must pass them on to others.

Do not train children to learning by force and harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds.

Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul

The greatest privilege of a human life is to become a midwife to the awakening of the Soul in another person.

Mankind will never see an end of trouble until lovers of wisdom come to hold political power, or the holders of power become lovers of wisdom

The worst form of injustice is pretended justice.

Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.

According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate parts, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves.

The greatest mistake physicians make is that they attempt to cure the body without attempting to cure the mind, yet the mind and the body are one and should not be treated separately!

Atheism is a disease of the soul before it becomes an error of understanding.

The greatest wealth is to live content with little.

When man is not properly trained, he is the most savage animal on the face of the globe.

False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.

Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being

The wise man will want to be ever with him who is better than himself.

Poverty doesn't come because of the decrease of wealth but because of the increase of desires.

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

A library of wisdom, is more precious than all wealth, and all things that are desirable cannot be compared to it. Whoever therefore claims to be zealous of truth, of happiness, of wisdom or knowledge, must become a lover of books.

Misanthropy ariseth from a man trusting another without having sufficient knowledge of his character, and, thinking him to be truthful, sincere, and honourable, finds a little afterwards that he is wicked, faithless, and then he meets with another of the same character. When a man experiences this often, and more particularly from those whom he considered his most dear and best friends, at last, having frequently made a slip, he hates the whole world, and thinks that there is nothing sound at all in any of them.

The laws of democracy remain a dead letter, its freedom is anarchy, its equality the equality of unequals

Thinking is the soul talking to itself.

Music has the capacity to touch the innermost reaches of the soul and music gives flight to the imagination.

I know not how I may seem to others, but to myself I am but a small child wandering upon the vast shores of knowledge, every now and then finding a small bright pebble to content myself with

A true artist is someone who gives birth to a new reality.

The true lover of knowledge naturally strives for truth, and is not content with common opinion, but soars with undimmed and unwearied passion till he grasps the essential nature of things.

Justice means minding one's own business and not meddling with other men's concerns.

To begin is the most important part of any quest and by far the most courageous.