Quotessence
Home / Books / The Republic

The Republic

Book by Plato · 10 quotes · Plato, Men, Justice

Filter quotes by topic

AllPlatoMenJusticePoliticalSoulRepublicPhilosophyShouldWayWords Of WisdomCharacterChildrenEvilStatesDoeInjusticeKnowledgeLightMusicPhilosopher

The Republic Quotes

“[W]hen men have both done and suffered injustice and have had experience of both, not being able to avoid the one and obtain the other, they think that they had better agree among themselves to have neither; hence there arise laws and mutual covenants; and that which is ordained by law is termed by them lawful and just. This they affirm to be the origin and nature of justice;—it is a mean or compromise, between the best of all, which is to do injustice and not be punished, and the worst of all, which is to suffer injustice without the power of retaliation; and justice, being at a middle point between the two, is tolerated not as a good, but as the lesser evil…”

LawEvilJusticeInjustice
Book:The Republic
Create image

“And when the constitution of the State is completed, the conception of justice is not dismissed, but reappears under the same or different names throughout the work, both as the inner law of the individual soul, and finally as the principle of rewards and punishments of another life. The virtues are based on justice, of which common honesty in buying and selling is the shadow, and justice is based on the idea of good, which is the harmony of the world, and is reflected both in the institutions of states and in motions of the heavenly bodies.”

SoulJusticeHarmonyHeavenlyRepublicState
Book:The Republic
Create image

“Then as for those who gaze upon many beautiful things but don't see the beautiful itself, and aren't even capable of following someone else who leads them to it, and upon many just things but not the just itself, and all the things like that, we'll claim that they accept the seeming of everything but discern nothing of what they have opinions about.”

PhilosophyBeautifulJusticeVirtueEssenceAppearanceGoodJustHigher FormsMoral BeautyRealm Of The Forms
Book:The Republic
Create image

“The State which we have founded must possess the four cardinal virtues of wisdom, courage, discipline and justice ... Justice is the principle which has in fact been followed throughout, the principle of one man one job, of minding one s own business , in the sense of doing the job for which one is naturally fitted and not interfering with other people.”

PeopleMenStatesFactsJobsPoliticalJusticePrinciplesVirtueFourDisciplineOne ManInterfereOwn BusinessCardinals
Book:The Republic
Create image

“Justice in the individual is now defined analogously to justice in the state. The individual is wise and brave in virtue of his reason and spirit respectively: he is disciplined when spirit and appetite are in proper subordination to reason. He is just in virtue of the harmony which exists when all three elements of the mind perform their proper function and so achieve their proper fulfillment; he is unjust when no such harmony exists.”

MindStatesReasonPoliticalSpiritThreeIndividualJusticeVirtueWiseAchieveElementsFunctionHarmonyBraveDefinedFulfillmentAppetiteUnjustSubordination
Book:The Republic
Create image