Great Quotes from Plato
Plato (424/423 – 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. In Athens, Plato founded the Academy, a philosophical school where he taught the philosophical doctrines that would later became known as Platonism. Plato was a pen name derived from his nickname given to him by his wrestling coach – allegedly a reference to his physical broadness. According to Alexander of Miletus quoted by Diogenes of Sinope his actual name was Aristocles, son of Ariston, of the deme Collytus.
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.”
“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.”
“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”
“Only the dead have seen the end of war.”
“The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”
“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.”
“The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself.”
“According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate parts, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves.”
“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”
“Never discourage anyone…who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.”
“Love is a serious mental disease.”
“One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”
“good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws”
“The measure of a man is what he does with power.”
“Ignorance, the root and stem of every evil.”
“If women are expected to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things.”
“I’m trying to think, don’t confuse me with facts.”
“…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 other’s sight, as I may say, even for a moment…”
“Those who tell the stories rule society.”
“There is truth in wine and children”
“Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge. ”
“The madness of love is the greatest of heaven’s blessings.”
“Education is teaching our children to desire the right things.”
“Courage is knowing what not to fear.”
“There are three classes of men; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain.”
“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.”
“There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.”
“You should not honor men more than truth.”
“When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them.”
“The beginning is the most important part of the work.”
