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Plato Quotes

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Famous Plato Quotes

“We are bound to our bodies like an oyster to its shell.”

BodyBoundsShellsOysters
Book:Wit and Wisdom of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle: Being a Treasury of Thousands of Glorious, Inspiring and Imperishable Thoughts, Views and Observations of the Three Great Greek Philosophers, Classified Under about Four Hundred Subjects for Comparative Study
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“Evil is the vulgar lover who loves the body rather than the soul, inasmuch as he is not even stable, because he loves a thing which is in itself unstable, and therefore when the bloom of youth which he was desiring is over, he takes wing and flies away, in spite of all his words and promises; whereas the love of the noble disposition is life-long, for it becomes one with the everlasting.”

LongSoulBodyEvilYouthLoversPromiseWingsNobleSpiteStableDispositionVulgarEverlastingLong LifeUnstableFly Away
Book:Plato: The Complete Works: From the greatest Greek philosopher, known for The Republic, Symposium, Apology, Phaedrus, Laws, Crito, Phaedo, Timaeus, Meno, Euthyphro, Gorgias, Parmenides, Protagoras, Statesman and Critias
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“Each living creature is said to be alive and to be the same individual - as for example someone is said to be the same person from when he is a child until he comes to be an old man. And yet, if he's called the same, that's despite the fact that he's never made up from the same things, but is always being renewed, and losing what he had before, whether it's hair, or flesh, or bones, or blood, in fact the whole body.”

IfsMenChildrenPersonsMadeSaidWholeFactsBodyIndividualAliveBloodExampleHairCreaturesLosingBonesFleshDespiteOld ManLiving Creatures
Author:Plato
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“Let us describe the education of our men. What then is the education to be? Perhaps we could hardly find a better than that which the experience of the past has already discovered, which consists, I believe, in gymnastic, for the body, and music for the mind.”

MenMindBelieveBodyPastI BelieveEducationMusicI Believe InPlato
Book:The Republic of Plato, Translated Into English, with an Introduction, Analysis, and Notes. By J. Ll. Davies and D. J. Vaughan
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“Is it not also true that no physician, in so far as he is a physician, considers or enjoins what is for the physician's interest, but that all seek the good of their patients? For we have agreed that a physician strictly so called, is a ruler of bodies, and not a maker of money, have we not?”

BodyInterestPatientMakersRulersPhysiciansPlato
Book:The Republic of Plato, tr. with an analysis and notes, by J.L. Davies and D.J. Vaughan
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“For neither does wealth bring honour to the owner, if he be a coward; of such a one the wealth belongs to another, and not to himself. Nor does beauty and strength of body, when dwelling in a base and cowardly man, appear comely, but the reverse of comely, making the possessor more conspicuous, and manifesting forth his cowardice.”

IfsMenDoeBodyWealthOwnersCowardHonourManifestCowardiceReversePlatoDwellingCowardly
Book:The Complete Plato
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“Harmony sinks deep into the recesses of the soul and takes its strongest hold there, bringing grace also to the body & mind as well. Music is a moral law. It gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, and life to everything. It is the essence of order.”

GivingMindWellsSoulBodyInspirationLawOrderUniverseImaginationMoralGraceSadnessMusic IsEssenceHarmonyWingsFlightContemplationCharmStrongestMoral LawRecess
Author:Plato
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“If one sins against the laws of proportion and gives something too big to something too small to carry it - too big sails to too small a ship, too big meals to too small a body, too big powers to too small a soul - the result is bound to be a complete upset. In an outburst of hubris the overfed body will rush into sickness, while the jack-in-office will rush into the unrighteousness that hubris always breeds.”

IfsGivingSoulBodyBigsLawPoliticalSinResultsOfficeBoundsShipsUpsetMealsProportionSicknessSailHubrisOutburstUnrighteousness
Author:Plato
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