Philosophy is an elegant thing, if anyone modestly meddles with it; but if they are conversant with it more than is becoming, it corrupts them.
—Plato
Topics: Science, Philosophy
Wealth does not bring excellence, but that wealth comes from excellence.
—Plato
Topics: Excellence
States are as the men, they grow out of human characters.
—Plato
Topics: Nation, Nations, Nationality, Nationalism
Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher; and philosophy begins in wonder.
—Plato
Topics: Dreams
To prefer evil to good is not in human nature; and when a man is compelled to choose one of two evils, no one will choose the greater when he might have the less.
—Plato
Democracy is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequal alike.
—Plato
Topics: Democracy, Disorder
Those who intend on becoming great should love neither themselves or their own things, but only what is just, whether it happens to be done by themselves or others.
—Plato
Topics: Greatness & Great Things, Greatness
Education is teaching our children to desire the right things.
—Plato
A sensible man will remember that the eyes may be confused in two ways – by a change from light to darkness or from darkness to light; and he will recognize that the same thing happens to the soul.
—Plato
Topics: Light
No human thing is of serious importance.
—Plato
Topics: Worry
The greatest mistake physicians make is that they attempt to cure the body without attempting to cure the mind; yet the mind and the body are one and should not be treated separately!
—Plato
Poetry comes nearer to vital truth than history.
—Plato
Topics: Art, Poetry
For just as poets love their own works, and fathers their own children, in the same way those who have created a fortune value their money, not merely for its uses, like other persons, but because it is their own production. This makes them moreover disagreeable companions, because they will praise nothing but riches.
—Plato
Topics: Riches, Wealth
Each man is capable of doing one thing well. If he attempts several, he will fail to achieve distinction in any.
—Plato
Topics: Concentration, Focus
Wine fills the heart with courage.
—Plato
Topics: Wine, One liners
Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.
—Plato
Topics: Education
If I were sure God would pardon me, and men would not know my sin, yet I should be ashamed to sin, because of its essential baseness.
—Plato
Topics: Sin
Philosophy is the highest music
—Plato
Topics: Philosophy
Excellent things are rare.
—Plato
Topics: Excellence
Atheism is a disease of the soul before it becomes an error of understanding.
—Plato
Topics: Atheism
The partisan, when he is engaged in a dispute, cares nothing about the rights of the question, but is anxious only to convince his hearers of his own assertions.
—Plato
There are few people so stubborn in their atheism who when danger is pressing in will not acknowledge the divine power.
—Plato
Topics: Atheism
By education I mean that training in excellence from youth upward which makes a man passionately desire to be a perfect citizen, and teaches him to rule, and to obey, with justice. This is the only education which deserves the name.
—Plato
Topics: Excellence
If a man be endowed with a generous mind, this is the best kind of nobility.
—Plato
Topics: Criticism, Mind
There can be no affinity nearer than our country.
—Plato
Topics: Patriotism
The mind ought sometimes to be diverted, that it may return the better to thinking.
—Plato
Topics: Pleasure, Mind
Every unjust man is unjust against his will
—Plato
Topics: One liners
Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another.
—Plato
In politics we presume that everyone who knows how to get votes knows how to administer a city or a state. When we are ill… we do not ask for the handsomest physician, or the most eloquent one.
—Plato
Topics: Politicians, Politics
Any city however small, is in fact divided into two, one the city of the poor, the other of the rich. These are at war with one another.
—Plato
Topics: City Life, Cities
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Aristotle Ancient Greek Philosopher
- Xenocrates Greek Philosopher, Scientist
- Heraclitus Ancient Greek Philosopher
- Epicurus Greek Philosopher
- Epictetus Ancient Greek Philosopher
- Plotinus Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mystic
- Bias of Priene Greek Orator
- Charles Sanders Peirce American Philosopher
- Socrates Ancient Greek Philosopher
- Pythagoras Greek Philosopher
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