Plato Quotes

And whenever any one informs us that he has found a man who knows all the arts, and all things else that anybody knows, and every single thing with a higher degree of accuracy than any other man –whoever tells us this, I think that we can only imagine him to be a simple creature who is likely to have been deceived by some wizard or actor whom he met, and whom he thought all-knowing, because he himself was unable to analyze the nature of knowledge and ignorance and imitation.

We are like people looking for something they have in their hands all the time; we're looking in all directions except at the thing we want, which is probably why we haven't found it.

I am that gadfly which God has attached to the state, and all day long …arousing and persuading and reproaching…You will not easily find another like me.

The soul of man is immortal and imperishable.

let the speaker speak truly and the judge decide justly.

The first and best victory is to conquer self. To be conquered by self is, of all things, the most shameful and vile.

If it were necessary either to do wrong or to suffer it, I should choose to suffer rather than do it.

…it’s better in fact to be guilty of manslaughter than of fraud about what is fair and just.

And Agathon said, It is probable, Socrates, that I knew nothing of what I had said.

And yet spoke you beautifully, Agathon, he said.

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

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

Then the lover, who is true and no counterfeit, must of necessity be loved by his love.

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

No matter how hard you fight the darkness, every light casts a shadow, and the closer you get to the light, the darker that shadow becomes.

There is no such thing as a lover's oath.