Quotes by Plato

The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men.

If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life.

The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life.

The most important part of education is proper training in the nursery.

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

Cunning... is but the low mimic of wisdom.

Life must be lived as play.

One man cannot practice many arts with success.

A hero is born among a hundred, a wise man is found among a thousand, but an accomplished one might not be found even among a hundred thousand men.

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

Justice in the life and conduct of the State is possible only as first it resides in the hearts and souls of the citizens.

It is right to give every man his due.

“You should not honor men more than truth.”

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

“...when he looks at Beauty in the only way that Beauty can be seen - only then will it become possible for him to give birth not to images of virtue (because hes in touch with no images), but to true virtue [arete] (because he is in touch with true Beauty). The love of the gods belongs to anyone who has given to true virtue and nourished it, and if any human being could become immortal, it would be he.”

“Similarly with regard to truth, wont we say that a soul is maimed if it hates a voluntary falsehood, cannot endure to have one in itself, and is greatly angered when it exists in others, but is nonetheless content to accept an involuntary falsehood, isnt angry when it is caught being ignorant, and bears its lack of learning easily, wallowing in it like a pig?”

“Love is born into every human being; it calls back the halves of our original nature together; it tries to make one out of two and heal the wound of human nature.”

“Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.”

“There is also a third kind of madness, which is possession by the Muses, enters into a delicate and virgin soul, and there inspiring frenzy, awakens lyric....But he, who, not being inspired and having no touch of madness in his soul, comes to the door and thinks he will get into the temple by the help of art--he, I say, and his poetry are not admitted; the sane man is nowhere at all when he enters into rivalry with the madman.”

“...and when one of them meets the other half, the actual half of himself, whether he be a lover of youth or a lover of another sort, the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy and one will not be out of the others sight, as I may say, even for a moment...”