Plato Quotes

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.

At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet

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

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.

Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.

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

It is the task of the enlightened not only to ascend to learning and to see the good but to be willing to descend again to those prisoners and to share their troubles and their honors, whether they are worth having or not. And this they must do, even with the prospect of death.

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.

Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance

The philosopher whose dealings are with divine order himself acquires the characteristics of order and divinity.

... when someone sees a soul disturbed and unable to see something, he won't laugh mindlessly, but he'll take into consideration whether it has come from a brighter life and is dimmed through not having yet become accustomed to the dark or whether it has come from greater ignorance into greater light and is dazzled by the increased brillance.

He feels particularly ashamed if ever he is seen by his lovers to be invovled in something dishonourable.

Music is a moral law. It gives a soul to the Universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything. It is the essence of order, and leads to all that is good and just and beautiful.

Honesty is for the most part less profitable than dishonesty

Knowledge becomes evil if the aim be not virtuous.