Plato Quotes

"It's not at all uncommon to find a person's desires compelling him to go against his reason, and to see him cursing himself and venting his passion on the source of the compulsion within him. It's as if there were two warring factions, with passion fighting on the side of reason."

2026-07-20 20:21:08 CEST

"The rhetorician need not know the truth about things; he has only to discover some way of persuading the ignorant that he has more knowledge than those who know."

2026-07-20 08:21:08 CEST

"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."

2026-07-19 20:21:08 CEST

"Only a philosopher's mind grows wings, since its memory always keeps it as close as possible to those realities by being close to which the gods are divine. A man who uses reminders of these things correctly is always at the highest, most perfect level of initiation, and he is the only one who is perfect as perfect can be. He stands outside human concerns and draws close to the divine; ordinary people think he is disturbed and rebuke him for this, unaware that he is possessed by god."

2026-07-19 08:21:08 CEST

"Those who have knowledge are more confident than those who have no knowledge, and they are more confident after they have learned than before."

2026-07-18 20:21:07 CEST

"What shall we say about those spectators, then, who can see a plurality of beautiful things, but not beauty itself, and who are incapable of following if someone else tries to lead them to it, and who can see many moral actions, but not morality itself, and so on? That they only ever entertain beliefs, and do not know any of the things they believe?"

2026-07-18 08:21:08 CEST

"Democracy passes into despotism."

2026-07-17 20:21:08 CEST

"If women are expected to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things."

2026-07-17 08:21:08 CEST

"He whom love touches not walks in darkness."

2026-07-16 20:21:07 CEST

"Laws are partly formed for the sake of good men, in order to instruct them how they may live on friendly terms with one another, and partly for the sake of those who refuse to be instructed, whose spirit cannot be subdued, or softened, or hindered from plunging into evil."

2026-07-16 08:21:08 CEST

"This alone is to be feared: the closed mind, the sleeping imagination, the death of spirit.,."

2026-07-15 20:21:09 CEST

"There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help and what they cannot."

2026-07-15 08:21:07 CEST

"The philosopher is in love with truth, that is, not with the changing world of sensation, which is the object of opinion, but with the unchanging reality which is the object of knowledge."

2026-07-14 20:21:08 CEST

"All enquiry and all learning is but recollection."

2026-07-13 20:21:09 CEST

"Excellence of understanding comes from something divine, whereas the other excellences are probably close to the body."

2026-07-13 08:21:08 CEST

"I don't think we shall quarrel about a word the subject of our inquiry is too important for that."

2026-07-12 20:21:07 CEST

"The truth is, O men of Athens, that God only is wise; and by his answer he intends to show that the wisdom of men is worth little or nothing."

2026-07-12 08:21:07 CEST

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2026-07-11 20:21:08 CEST

"I would teach children music, physics, and philosophy; but most importantly music, for the patterns in music and all the arts are the keys to learning."

2026-07-11 08:21:07 CEST

"Excess generally causes reaction, and produces a change in the opposite direction, whether it be in the seasons, or in individuals, or in governments."

2026-07-10 20:21:08 CEST

"He who wishes to serve his country must have not only the power to think, but the will to act."

2026-07-10 08:21:09 CEST

2026-07-09 20:21:16 CEST

"For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories."

2026-07-09 08:21:08 CEST

"You should not honor men more than truth."

2026-07-08 20:21:07 CEST

"I have a theory that you can make any sentence seem profound by writing the name of a dead philosopher at the end of it."

2026-07-08 08:21:07 CEST

"We are twice armed if we fight with faith."

2026-07-07 20:21:10 CEST

"But of the heaven which is above the heavens, what earthly poet ever did or ever will sing worthily?"

2026-07-06 20:21:52 CEST

"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."

2026-07-06 08:21:07 CEST

"Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each."

2026-07-05 20:21:07 CEST

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

2026-07-05 08:21:07 CEST

"States are as the men, they grow out of human characters."

2026-07-04 20:21:51 CEST

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

2026-07-04 08:21:06 CEST

2026-07-03 20:21:08 CEST

"Not only is the old man twice a child, but also the man who is drunk."

2026-07-03 08:21:09 CEST

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

2026-07-02 20:21:08 CEST

"There are three classes of men; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain."

2026-07-02 08:21:07 CEST

"So when a man surrenders to the sound of music and lets its sweet, soft, mournful strains, which we have just described, be funneled into his soul through his ears, and gives up all his time to the glamorous moanings of song, the effect at first on his energy and initiative of mind, if he has any, is to soften it as iron is softened in a furnace, and made workable instead of hard and unworkable: but if he persists and does not break the enchantment, the next stage is that it melts and runs, till the spirit has quite run out of him and his mental sinews are cut.,."

2026-07-01 20:21:19 CEST

"Must not all things at last be swallowed up in Death?"

2026-07-01 08:21:06 CEST

"He that lendeth to another in time of prosperity, shall never want help himself in the time of adversity."

2026-06-30 20:21:06 CEST

"As it is, the lover of inquiry must follow his beloved wherever it may lead him."

2026-06-30 08:21:08 CEST

"Misanthropy ariseth from a man trusting another without having sufficient knowledge of his character, and, thinking him to be truthful, sincere, and honorable, 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."

2026-06-29 20:21:21 CEST

"How singular is the thing called pleasure, and how curiously related to pain, which might be thought to be the opposite of it; for they never come to a man together, and yet he who pursues either of them is generally compelled to take the other. They are two, and yet they grow together out of one head or stem."

2026-06-29 08:21:07 CEST

"There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help and what they cannot."

2026-06-28 20:21:07 CEST

"A work well begun is half ended."

2026-06-28 08:21:06 CEST

"If a man perfectly righteous should come upon earth, he would find so much opposition that he would be imprisoned, reviled, scourged, and in fine crucified by such, who, though they were extremely wicked, would yet pass for righteous men."

2026-06-27 20:21:07 CEST

"A measure of such things which in any degree falls short of the whole truth is not fair measure; for nothing imperfect is the measure of anything, although persons are too apt to be contented and think that they need search no further."

2026-06-27 08:21:07 CEST

"Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty."

2026-06-26 20:21:07 CEST

"To fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise without really being wise, for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For no one knows whether death may not be the greatest good that can happen to man."

2026-06-26 08:21:17 CEST

"Certainly old age has a great sense of calm and freedom; when the passions relax their hold, then, as Sophocles says, we are freed from the grasp not of one mad master only, but of many. The truth is, Socrates, that these regrets, and also the complaints about relations, are to be attributed to the same cause, which is not old age, but men's characters and tempers; for he who is of a calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age, but to him who is of opposite disposition youth and age are equally a burden."

2026-06-25 20:21:08 CEST

"We shall be better and braver and less helpless if we think that we ought to enquire, than we should have been if we indulged in the idle fancy that there was no knowing and no use in seeking to know what we do not know;— that is a theme upon which I am ready to fight, in word and deed, to the utmost of my power."

2026-06-24 20:21:07 CEST

"To love rightly is to love what is orderly and beautiful in an educated and disciplined way."

2026-06-24 08:21:56 CEST

"Ignorance is the root and stem of every evil."

2026-06-23 20:21:08 CEST

"The man who makes everything that leads to happiness, depends upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation, the man of manly character and of wisdom."

2026-06-23 08:21:06 CEST

"Necessity is the mother of invention."

2026-06-22 20:21:12 CEST

"We are twice armed if we fight with faith."

2026-06-22 08:21:07 CEST

"Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men."

2026-06-21 20:21:08 CEST

"Self-conquest is the greatest of victories."

2026-06-21 08:21:29 CEST

"Will life be worth having, if that higher part of man be destroyed, which is improved by justice and depraved by injustice?"

2026-06-20 20:21:06 CEST

"True friendship can exist only between equals."

2026-06-20 08:21:07 CEST

"All I really know is the extent of my own ignorance."

2026-06-19 20:21:10 CEST

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

2026-06-19 08:21:07 CEST

"As there are misanthropists, or haters of men, there are also misologists, or haters of ideas, and both spring from the same cause, which is ignorance of the world."

2026-06-18 20:21:10 CEST

"There is, in my view, the birth of society that each of us, far from being sufficient to itself, on the contrary need a large number of people."

2026-06-18 08:21:07 CEST

"Our love for our children springs from the soul's greatest yearning for immortality."

2026-06-17 20:21:07 CEST

"The worst type of man behaves as badly in his waking life as some men do in their dreams."

2026-06-17 08:21:07 CEST

"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."

2026-06-16 20:21:08 CEST

"I thought to myself: I am wiser than this man; neither of us probably knows anything that is really good, but he thinks he has knowledge, when he has not, while I, having no knowledge, do not think I have.,."

2026-06-16 08:21:26 CEST

"The only real ill-doing is the deprivation of knowledge."

2026-06-15 20:21:07 CEST

"Life must be lived as play, playing certain games, making sacrifices, singing and dancing, and then a man will be able to propitiate the gods, and defend himself against his enemies, and win in the contest."

2026-06-15 08:21:08 CEST

"No wealth can ever make a bad man at peace with himself."

2026-06-14 20:21:07 CEST

"An empty vessel makes the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers."

2026-06-14 08:21:06 CEST

"Take a look around, then, and see that none of the uninitiated are listening. Now by the uninitiated I mean the people who believe in nothing but what they can grasp in their hands, and who will not allow that action or generation or anything invisible can have real existence."

2026-06-13 20:21:07 CEST

"Knowledge becomes evil if the aim be not virtuous."

2026-06-13 08:21:09 CEST

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

2026-06-12 20:21:07 CEST

"Friends have all things in common."

2026-06-12 08:21:06 CEST

"In practice people who study philosophy too long become very odd birds, not to say thoroughly vicious; while even those who are the best of them are reduced by. philosophy to complete uselessness as members of society."

2026-06-11 20:21:07 CEST

"It is a common saying, and in everybody's mouth, that life is but a sojourn. The learning and knowledge that we have, is, at the most, but little compared with that of which we are ignorant."

2026-06-10 20:21:07 CEST

"Complacent ignorance is the most lethal sickness of the soul."

2026-06-10 08:21:08 CEST

"Think only of the ambition of men, and you will wonder at the senselessness of their ways, unless you consider how they are stirred by the love of an immortality of fame. They are ready to run all risks greater far than they would have run for their children, and to spend money and undergo any sort of toil, and even to die, for the sake of leaving behind them a name which shall be eternal."

2026-06-09 20:21:08 CEST

"Let nobody speak mischief of anybody."

2026-06-09 08:21:07 CEST

"For all good and evil, whether in the body or in human nature, originates in the soul, and overflows from thence, as from the head into the eyes."

2026-06-08 20:21:07 CEST

"I used to imagine that no human can make men good; but I know better now."

2026-06-08 08:21:07 CEST

"Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being."

2026-06-07 20:21:08 CEST

"I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly conflict."

2026-06-07 08:21:07 CEST

"In order for man to succeed in life, God provided him with two means, education and physical activity. Not separately, one for the soul and the other for the body, but for the two together. With these means, man can attain perfection."

2026-06-06 20:21:07 CEST

"The constrained performance of bodily labour does, it is true, exert no evil influence on the body; but in the case of the mind, no study, pursued under compulsion, remains rooted in the memory."

2026-06-06 08:21:07 CEST

"I must distinguish between that which always is and never becomes and which is apprehended by reason and reflection, and that which always becomes and never is and is conceived by opinion with the help of sense."

2026-06-05 20:21:09 CEST

"The matter is as it is in all other cases: If it is naturally in you to be a good orator, a notable orator you will be when you have acquired knowledge and practice.,."

2026-06-05 08:21:07 CEST

"Beholding beauty with the eye of the mind, he will be enabled to bring forth, not images of beauty, but realities (for he has hold not of an image but of a reality), and bringing forth and nourishing true virtue to become the friend of God and be immortal, if mortal man may."

2026-06-04 08:21:51 CEST

"I don't think we shall quarrel about a word the subject of our inquiry is too important for that."

2026-06-03 20:21:53 CEST

"The harder you work, the luckier you get."

2026-06-03 08:21:07 CEST

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

2026-06-02 20:21:07 CEST

"Lust is inseparably accompanied with the troubling of all order, with impudence, unseemliness, sloth, and dissoluteness."

2026-06-02 08:21:08 CEST

"God is the cause only of good."

2026-06-01 20:21:08 CEST

2026-06-01 08:21:09 CEST

"Just as it would be madness to settle on medical treatment for the body of a person by taking an opinion poll of the neighbors, so it is irrational to prescribe for the body politic by polling the opinions of the people at large."

2026-05-31 20:21:10 CEST

"The harder you work, the luckier you get."

2026-05-31 08:21:07 CEST

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