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Plato Quotes

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Famous Plato Quotes

“We see many instances of cities going down like sinking ships to their destruction. There have been such wrecks in the past and there surely will be others in the future, caused by the wickedness of captains and crews alike. For these are guilty men, whose sin is supreme ignorance of what matters most.”

MenHas BeensMatterPastSinCitiesIgnoranceDestructionSupremeShipsGuiltyInstanceWhat MattersCaptainsCrewWickednessWrecksSinking
Book:Plato's Statesman
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“Now in this island of Atlantis there was a great and wonderful empire which had rule over the whole island and several others, and over parts of the continent and, furthermore, the men of Atlantis had subjected the parts of Libya within the columns of Heracles as far as Egypt, and of Europe as far as Tyrrhenia.This vast power, gathered into one, endeavored to subdue at a blow our country and yours and the whole of the region within the straits, and then, Solon, your country shone forth, in the excellence of her virtue and strength, among all mankind.”

MenCountryWholeVirtueWonderfulMankindHe ManEuropeExcellenceBlowOur CountryIslandsEmpiresRegionsContinentsEgyptColumnsLibyaAtlantis
Book:Gorgias and Timaeus
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“When I hear a man discoursing of virtue, or of any sort of wisdom, who is a true man and worthy of his theme, I am delighted beyond measure: and I compare the man and his words, and note the harmony and correspondence of them. And such an one I deem to be the true musician, having in himself a fairer harmony than that of the lyre.”

MenVirtueHe ManMusicianHarmonyNotesWorthyCompareThemeDelightedCorrespondenceTrue Man
Book:The Dialogues of Plato
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“No one punishes the evil-doer under the notion, or for the reason, that he has done wrong -- only the unreasonable fury of a beast acts in that way. But he who desires to inflict rational punishment does not retaliate for a past wrong, for that which is done cannot be undone, but he has regard to the future, and is desirous that the man who is punished, and he who sees him punished, may be deterred from doing wrong again.”

MenWayMayDoeReasonDonePastDesireEvilHe ManRegardNotionPunishmentRationalBeastFuryUndoneUnreasonableDoersEvil DoersPast Wrongs
Author:Plato
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“In heaven there is laid up a pattern which he who chooses may behold, and beholding, set his own house in order. The time has now arrived at which they must raise the eye of the soul to the Universal Light which lightens all things. With the eye ever directed toward things fixed and immutable which neither injure nor are injured - these they cannot help imitating. But I quite admit the difficulty of believing that in every man there is an eye of the soul which by the right direction is re-illumined, and is more precious far than ten thousand bodily eyes.”

MenBelieveMaySoulHelpingLightEyeOrderHouseHeavenThousandTenAll ThingsUniversalDifficultyRaisesPatternsEvery ManFixedInjuredRight DirectionImitating
Author:Plato
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“There is nothing so delightful as the hearing, or the speaking of truth. For this reason, there is no conversation so agreeable as that of the man of integrity, who hears without any intention to betray, and speaks without any intention to deceive.”

MenReasonSpeakHe ManIntegrityConversationIntentionHearingBetrayDeceivingDelightfulMan Of Integrity
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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“It is proper for every one to consider, in the case of all men, that he who has not been a servant cannot become a praiseworthy master; and it is meet that we should plume ourselves rather on acting the part of a servant properly than that of the master, first, towards the laws, (for in this way we are servants of the gods), and next, towards our elders.”

MenWayShouldFirstsLawNextActingCasesMastersServantEldersPraiseworthy
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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“Thus does the Muse herself move men divinely inspired, and through them thus inspired a Chain hangs together of others inspired divinely likewise.”

MenDoeTogetherMovingInfluenceInspiredChainsMuse
Book:The Works of Plato: Philebus, Charmides, Laches, Menexenus, Hippias major, Hippias minor, Ion, First Alcibiades, Second Alcibiades, Theages, The rivals, Hipparchus. Minos, Clitopho, The epistles
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“Man is the plumeless genus of bipeds, birds are the plumed.”

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

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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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“The cause of all the blunders committed by man arises from this excessive self-love. For the lover is blinded by the object loved; so that he passes a wrong judgment on what is just, good and beautiful, thinking that he ought always to honor what belongs to himself in preference to truth. For he who intends to be a great man ought to love neither himself nor his own things, but only what is just, whether it happens to be done by himself, or by another.”

ThinkingMenSelfDoneHappensBeautifulCausesObjectsOughtSelf LoveLoversHonorJudgmentCommittedAriseGreat MenPreferenceBlindedBlunders
Author:Plato
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“For the man who makes everything that leads to happiness, or near to it, to depend upon himself, and not upon other men, on whose good or evil actions his own doings are compelled to hinge,--such a one, I say, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation; this is the man of manly character and of wisdom.”

MenCharacterActionEvilPlansHe ManDependsModerationManhoodCompelledAdoptedMasculineManlyHingesDoingsLiving Happily
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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“Seven years of silent inquiry are needful for a man to learn the truth, but fourteen in order to learn how to make it known to his fellow-men.”

MenYearsTruthOrderKnownFellowsSilentSevenInquirySeven YearsFellow ManFourteen
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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“Madness, provided it comes as the gift of heaven, is the channel by which we receive the greatest blessings... the men of old who gave things their names saw no disgrace or reproach in madness; otherwise they would not have connected it with the name of the noblest of arts, the art of discerning the future, and called it the manic art... So, according to the evidence provided by our ancestors, madness is a nobler thing than sober sense... madness comes from God, whereas sober sense is merely human.”

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Author:Plato
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“For the poets tell us, don't they, that the melodies they bring us are gathered from rills that run with honey, out of glens and gardens of the Muses, and they bring them as bees do honey, flying like the bees? And what they say is true, for a poet is a light and winged thing, and holy, and never able to compose until he has become inspired, and is beside himself, and reason is no longer in him. So long as he has this in his possession, no man is able to make poetry or to chant in prophecy.”

MenInspirationalLongReasonLightRunningAblePoetryPoetHolyGardenMadnessInspiredPossessionFlyingMelodyHoneyBeesMuseProphecy
Book:The Collected Dialogues of Plato: Including The Letters
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“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.”

ThinkingMenWorldLittlesMadeWholeCharacterLastsHateSoundDearWhole WorldSufficientWickedSincereSlipsTruthfulBeing TruthfulMisanthropyFaithless
Author:Plato
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