In this post, we’ll venture into the world of Plato quotes, who was an ancient Greek philosopher and one of the most influential figures in Western philosophy.
Plato (circa 427–347 BCE) was a student of Socrates and the teacher of Aristotle.
His theory of Forms (or Ideas) is his most significant contribution and in it he argued that the physical world is imperfect and fleeting, while abstract, eternal “Forms” represent the true reality. For example, a physical chair is just an imperfect reflection of the perfect Form of a chair.
He also believed in the pre-existence and immortality of the soul.
His philosophical writings mostly take the form of dialogues, where characters engage in discussions and debates and many of these dialogues feature Socrates as the main figure. Through it he explored a wide range of topics, from ethics and justice to the nature of reality.
Let’s read some of the most profound and famous Plato quotes on life, philosophy, love and more.
Plato Quotes
1. “Necessity is the mother of invention.”
2. “I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”
3. “Poets utter great and wise things which they do not themselves understand.”
4. “It is right to give every man his due.”
5. “I have hardly ever known a mathematician who was capable of reasoning.”
6. “The excessive increase of anything causes a reaction in the opposite direction.”
7. “Time is the moving image of reality.”
8. “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.”
9. “Only the dead have seen the end of war.”
10. “Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed, by the masses.”
Plato Quotes on Life & Death
1. “No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.”
2. “Attention to health is life’s greatest hindrance.”
3. “Life must be lived as play.”
4. “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.”
5. “No one knows whether death, which people fear to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good.”
6. “Death is not the worst that can happen to men.”
7. “For to fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise without really being wise, for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For no one knows whether death may not be the greatest good that can happen to man.”
8. “People are like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die.”
Plato Quotes on Love
1. “At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.”
2. “Love is a serious mental disease.”
3. “Love is the joy of the good, the wonder of the wise, the amazement of the Gods.”
4. “Love is the name for our pursuit of wholeness, for our desire to be complete.”
5. “Love is the pursuit of the whole.”
6. “If a man can be properly said to love something, it must be clear that he feels affection for it as a whole, and does not love part of it to the exclusion of the rest.”
7. “You’re my star, a stargazer too, and I wish that I were heaven, with a billion eyes to look at you.”
Plato Quotes on Politics, Democracy & Communism
1. “One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”
2. “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.”
3. “Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.”
4. “Tyranny naturally arises out of democracy.”
5. “Democracy passes into despotism.”
6. “Our object in the construction of the state is the greatest happiness of the whole, and not that of any one class.”
7. “No one ever teaches well who wants to teach, or governs well who wants to govern.”
Plato Quotes on Knowledge
1. “Knowledge is the food of the soul.”
2. “Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.”
3. “Knowledge without justice ought to be called cunning rather than wisdom.”
4. “Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.”
5. “Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.”
6. “A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.”
Plato Quotes on Truth
1. “No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.”
2. “Truth is the beginning of every good to the gods, and of every good to man.”
3. “Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.”
4. “All I really know is the extent of my own ignorance.”
5. “You should not honor men more than truth.”
6. “He who is of calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age.”
Plato Quotes on Education & Children
1. “Education is teaching our children to desire the right things.”
2. “For good nurture and education implant good constitutions.”
3. “The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life.”
4. “If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life.”
5. “No man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nature and education.”
6. “Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence.”
Plato Quotes on Friendship
1. “True friendship can exist only between equals.”
2. “No one is a friend to his friend who does not love in return.”
Plato Quotes on Justice
1. “Not to help justice in her need would be an impiety.”
2. “He who commits injustice is ever made more wretched than he who suffers it.”
3. “Justice means minding one’s own business and not meddling with other men’s concerns.”
Plato Quotes on Evil
1. “Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil.”
2. “Pleasure is the bait of sin.”
3. “No wealth can ever make a bad man at peace with himself.”
4. “Any man may easily do harm, but not every man can do good to another.”
5. “He who steals a little steals with the same wish as he who steals much, but with less power.”
6. “There is in every one of us, even those who seem to be most moderate, a type of desire that is terrible, wild, and lawless.”
7. “When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them.”
Plato Quotes on the Soul
1. “Have you ever sensed that our soul is immortal and never dies?”
2. “And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul.”
3. “Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue.”
4. “False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.”
5. “Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself.”
Plato Quotes on Ethics
1. “For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.”
2. “The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depends upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation, the man of manly character and of wisdom.”
3. “Honesty is for the most part less profitable than dishonesty.”
4. “There is no harm in repeating a good thing.”
5. “Virtue is relative to the actions and ages of each of us in all that we do.”
6. “All the gold which is under or upon the earth is not enough to give in exchange for virtue.”
7. “There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.”
8. “Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.”
9. “The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile.”
Wisdom Plato Quotes
1. “The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.”
2. “Wise men talk because they have something to say; Fools, because they have to say something.”
3. “Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety.”
4. “We are twice armed if we fight with faith.”
5. “Courage is knowing what not to fear.”
6. “The measure of a man is what he does with power.”
7. “The beginning is the most important part of the work.”
8. “Those who don’t know must learn from those who do.”
Plato Quotes on Success
1. “Better a little which is well done, than a great deal imperfectly.”
2. “I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.”
3. “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.”
4. “The greatest wealth is to live content with little.”
5. “The wisest have the most authority.”
6. “The most virtuous are those who content themselves with being virtuous without seeking to appear so.”
7. “One man cannot practice many arts with success.”
8. “Never discourage anyone…who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.”
Philosophical Plato Quotes
1. “Man – a being in search of meaning.”
2. “Wisdom alone is the science of other sciences.”
3. “There must always remain something that is antagonistic to good.”
4. “Philosophy begins in wonder.”
5. “Wonder is the feeling of the philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.”
6. “Science is nothing but perception.”
7. “Philosophy is the highest form of music.”
8. “No law or ordinance is mightier than understanding.”
These Plato quotes reflect his ideas that have had a profound and lasting impact on various fields, including ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, and political theory.
He founded the Academy in Athens which is one of the earliest institutions of higher learning in the Western world.
Plato’s ideas have influenced many philosophers throughout history and Aristotle, his student, critiqued and expanded upon many of Plato’s concepts.The works of both philosophers laid the foundation for Western philosophical thought.
Which of these Plato quotes left an impact on you?
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