Plato

Quotes

• “They despised everything but virtue, caring little for their present state of life, and thinking lightly of the possessi...”
• “The vicious lover is the follower of earthly Love who desires the body rather than the soul; his heart is set on what is...”
• “Zeus, the god of gods, who rules according to law, and is able to see into such things, perceiving that an honourable ra...”
• “Now it appears to me that Nicias is unwilling to admit honestly that he has no meaning at all, but dodges this way and t...”
• “Plato's most enduring influence on science was his advice to approach the study of nature as an exercise in geometry. Th...”
• “Parmenides: If anyone, with his mind fixed on all these objections and others like them, denies the existence of ideas o...”
• “Fasting, meditation, chastity of thought, word, and deed; silence for certain periods of time to enable nature herself t...”
• “One profound lesson Plato teachers, albeit not by design, is that Plato himself, considered by many the greatest of all ...”
• “I shall have to test the theory of my father Parmenides, and contend forcibly that after a fashion not-being is and on t...”
• “Your pride has been too much for the pride of your admirers; they were numerous and high-spirited, but they have all run...”
• “Parmenides: I was pleased with you, Socrates, because you would not discuss the doubtful question in terms of visible ob...”
• “The characters of self-restrained officials are exceedingly careful and just and conservative, but they lack keenness an...”
• “And the true order of going, or being led by another, to the things of love, is to begin from the beauties of earth and ...”
• “But it's a false argument, because it assumes somehow that government is a way in which you put unselfish and ungreedy m...”
• “Plato was right: ideas rule the world, and, as men's minds will receive new ideas, laying aside the old and effete, the ...”
• “Law could never, by determining exactly what is noblest and must just for one and all, enjoin upon them that which is be...”
• “The whole business of the kingly weaving is comprised in this and this alone: in never allowing the self-restrained char...”
• “At this point one of the priests, a very old man, said, "O Solon, Solon, you Greeks are always children: there is not su...”
• “Neither perception nor true opinion, nor reason or explanation combined with true opinion could be knowledge… Then our a...”
• “We speak of a clock as an instrument for measuring time. In Plato and Aristotle's scheme of things, time (χρόνος) is its...”
• “After much effort, as names, definitions, sights, and other data of sense, are brought into contact and friction one wit...”
• “Parnenides: When there is a number of things which seem to you to be great, you may think, as you look at them all, that...”
• “In Plato and to a lesser extent in Aristotle we read that practical concerns are low and vulgar. It follows that busines...”
• “With regard to this question modern physics takes a definite stand against the materialism of Democritus and for Plato a...”
• “In the Symposium (see above) Plato likens empty vessels to fools for their lack of content, but says nothing of their so...”
• “Plato taught justice as subsisting in the soul of its possessor and his greatest good. "Men, in proportion to their inte...”
• “The attempt to separate everything from everything else is not only not in good taste but also shows that a man is utter...”
• “Until the eleventh century, when the thinking of Aristotle reached Western Europe, men had believed along with Plato tha...”
• “Since those who rule in the city do so because they own a lot, I suppose they're unwilling to enact laws to prevent youn...”
• “Attributed to Plato in No Ordinary Moments: A Peaceful Warrior's Guide to Daily Life (1992) by Dan Millman.  It has...”
• “Those who purge the soul believe that the soul can receive no benefit from any teachings offered to it until someone by ...”
• “Plato taught justice as subsisting in the soul of its possessor and his greatest good. "Men, in proportion to their inte...”
• “It is not in Science only that Plato is misled by his Method. The same confidence in deduction from unverified premisses...”
• “Socrates:  The disgrace begins when a man writes not well, but badly.Phaedrus:  Clearly.Socrates:  And wh...”
• “Music is a moral law.  It gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sa...”
• “Knowledge is the food of the soul; and we must take care, my friend, that the Sophist does not deceive us when he praise...”
• “Why write about Plato nearly 2400 years after his death? Don't we understand him by now? We do and we don't. But more im...”
• “For the Greeks who believed in the immortality of the soul it may have been harder to accept the Christian preaching of ...”
• “Very common online pop-psychological slogan which has been traced no further than a graduation speech to students at San...”
• “Urwick, Edward. J. The Message of Plato: A re-interpretation of the 'Republic'. London: Metheun and Co. Ltd., 1920. quot...”
• “Then the case is the same in all the other arts for the orator and his rhetoric; there is no need to know the truth of t...”
• “I shall argue that to seem to speak well of the gods to men is far easier than to speak well of men to men: for the inex...”
• “Often attributed to Plato, it cannot be found completely in any of his writings (see this). The quote is attributed to P...”
• “Democracy does not contain any force which will check the constant tendency to put more and more on the public payroll. ...”
• “Friedrich Nietzsche, Letter to Peter Gast, May 31, 1888. KSA 14.420. Quoted from Elst, Koenraad. Manu as a weapon agains...”
• “Beholding beauty with the eye of the mind, he will be enabled to bring forth, not images of beauty, but realities (for h...”
• “Moreover, there is a victory and defeat-the first and best of victories, the lowest and worst of defeats-which each man ...”
• “I do see one large and grievous kind of ignorance, separate from the rest, and as weighty as all the other parts put tog...”
• “Rhetoric, it seems, is a producer of persuasion for belief, not for instruction in the matter of right and wrong … And s...”
• “Also attributed on quote sites without a source, and can be found in some recent non-academic books but also without a s...”