Quotes By Plato

Date of Birth: 428/427 BC    Date of Death: 348/347

Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.  ~ Plato


Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.  ~ Plato


Ignorance, the root and stem of every evil.  ~ Plato


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.  ~ Plato


The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.  ~ Plato


Only the dead have seen the end of war.  ~ Plato


The soul takes flight to the world that is invisible but there arriving she is sure of bliss and forever dwells in paradise.  ~ Plato


Any man may easily do harm, but not every man can do good to another.  ~ Plato


Love is a serious mental disease.  ~ Plato


Man is a being in search of meaning.  ~ Plato


Poets utter great and wise things which they do not themselves understand.  ~ Plato


When there is an income tax, the just man will pay more and the unjust less on the same amount of income.  ~ Plato


Writing is the geometry of the soul.  ~ Plato


Courage is a kind of salvation. ~ Plato


Character is simply habit long continued.  ~ Plato


No thing more excellent nor more valuable than wine was ever granted mankind by God.  ~ Plato


Let parents then bequeath to their children not riches but the spirit of reverence.  ~ Plato


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.  ~ Plato


I have hardly ever known a mathematician who was capable of reasoning.  ~ Plato


Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.  ~ Plato


Education is teaching our children to desire the right things.  ~ Plato


No human thing is of serious importance.  ~ Plato


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


An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.  ~ Plato


Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable.  ~ Plato


Attention to health is life's greatest hindrance.  ~ Plato


Books are immortal sons defying their sires.  ~ Plato


Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.  ~ Plato


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.  ~ Plato


You should not honor men more than truth.  ~ Plato


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


The soul of man is immortal and imperishable.  ~ Plato


How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  ~ Plato


Books are immortal sons defying their sires.  ~ Plato


The measure of a man is what he does with power.  ~ Plato


The man deserved his fate, deny it who can; yes, but the fate did not deserve the man.  ~ Plato


Never discourage anyone...who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.  ~ Plato


The soul of him who has education is whole and perfect and escapes the worst disease, but, if a man's education be neglected, he walks lamely through life and returns good for nothing to the world below.  ~ Plato


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


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


One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.  ~ Plato


I'm trying to think, don't confuse me with facts.  ~ Plato


No thing more excellent nor more valuable than wine was ever granted mankind by God.  ~ Plato


Death is not the worst that can happen to men.  ~ Plato


We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when adults are afraid of the light.  ~ Plato


When men speak ill of thee, live so that nobody will believe them.  ~ Plato


When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty and there is nothing to fear from them then he is always stirring up some wary or other in order that the people may require a leader.  ~ Plato


Necessity is the mother of invention.  ~ Plato


Love is the pursuit of the whole.  ~ Plato


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


Those who tell the stories rule society.  ~ Plato


Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.  ~ Plato


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.  ~ Plato


The part can never be well unless the whole is well.  ~ Plato


Wealth is the parent of luxury and indolence, and poverty of meanness and viciousness, and both of discontent.  ~ Plato


Courage is knowing what not to fear.  ~ Plato


Everything that deceives may be said to enchant.  ~ Plato


Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination
and life to everything.  ~ Plato


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


Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable.  ~ Plato


A dog has the soul of a philosopher.  ~ Plato


The penalty that good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by men worse than themselves.  ~ Plato


The greatest mistake in the treatment of diseases is that there are physicians for the body and physicians for the soul, although the two cannot be separated.  ~ Plato


People who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.  ~ Plato


Man...is a tame or civilized animal; never the less, he requires proper instruction and a fortunate nature, and then of all animals he becomes the most divine and most civilized; but if he be insufficiently or ill- educated he is the most savage of earthly creatures.  ~ Plato


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.  ~ Plato


You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.  ~ Plato