Top 983 Quotes & Sayings by Plato

Explore popular quotes and sayings by a Greek philosopher Plato.

Last updated on December 25, 2024.

Plato was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution of higher learning on the European continent.

Greek - Philosopher | 427 BC - 347 BC

Source: Wikipedia

When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing more to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.

Plato

The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile.

Plato

Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.

Plato

Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself.

Plato

There are three classes of men; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain.

Plato

Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.

Plato

Science is nothing but perception.

Plato

There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.

Plato

Knowledge without justice ought to be called cunning rather than wisdom.

Plato

When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them.

Plato

Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another.

Plato

Love is a serious mental disease.

Plato

Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence.

Plato

All the gold which is under or upon the earth is not enough to give in exchange for virtue.

Plato

The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life.

Plato

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.

Plato

Honesty is for the most part less profitable than dishonesty.

Plato

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.

Plato

The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men.

Plato

The beginning is the most important part of the work.

Plato

Death is not the worst that can happen to men.

Plato

It is right to give every man his due.

Plato

Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.

Plato

The measure of a man is what he does with power.

Plato

All things will be produced in superior quantity and quality, and with greater ease, when each man works at a single occupation, in accordance with his natural gifts, and at the right moment, without meddling with anything else.

Plato

Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.

Plato

This City is what it is because our citizens are what they are.

Plato

The greatest wealth is to live content with little.

Plato

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Plato

Necessity... the mother of invention.

Plato

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

Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil.

Plato

Wonder is the feeling of the philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.

Plato

There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.

Plato

Courage is knowing what not to fear.

Plato

When the mind is thinking it is talking to itself.

Plato

Life must be lived as play.

Plato

Love is the joy of the good, the wonder of the wise, the amazement of the Gods.

Plato

Attention to health is life's greatest hindrance.

Plato

There is no harm in repeating a good thing.

Plato

Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue.

Plato

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

As the builders say, the larger stones do not lie well without the lesser.

Plato

A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.

Plato

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.

Plato

Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.

Plato

Democracy... is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder; and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.

Plato

Justice means minding one's own business and not meddling with other men's concerns.

Plato

All men are by nature equal, made all of the same earth by one Workman; and however we deceive ourselves, as dear unto God is the poor peasant as the mighty prince.

Plato

No one is a friend to his friend who does not love in return.

Plato

Justice in the life and conduct of the State is possible only as first it resides in the hearts and souls of the citizens.

Plato

The learning and knowledge that we have, is, at the most, but little compared with that of which we are ignorant.

Plato

This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.

Plato

For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.

Plato

Better a little which is well done, than a great deal imperfectly.