Quotes By Plato

Date of Birth: 428/427 BC    Date of Death: 348/347

Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.  ~ Plato


Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.  ~ Plato


Ignorance, the root and stem of every evil.  ~ Plato


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.  ~ Plato


The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.  ~ Plato


Only the dead have seen the end of war.  ~ Plato


Any man may easily do harm, but not every man can do good to another.  ~ Plato


Love is a serious mental disease.  ~ Plato


Man is a being in search of meaning.  ~ Plato


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


Writing is the geometry of the soul.  ~ Plato


Courage is a kind of salvation. ~ Plato


Character is simply habit long continued.  ~ Plato


No thing more excellent nor more valuable than wine was ever granted mankind by God.  ~ Plato


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


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


Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.  ~ Plato


Education is teaching our children to desire the right things.  ~ Plato


No human thing is of serious importance.  ~ Plato


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


An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.  ~ Plato


Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable.  ~ Plato


Attention to health is life's greatest hindrance.  ~ Plato


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


I know not how I may seem to others, but to myself I am but a small child wandering upon the vast shores of knowledge, every now and then finding a small bright pebble to content myself with.  ~ Plato


You should not honor men more than truth.  ~ Plato


The soul of man is immortal and imperishable.  ~ Plato


How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  ~ Plato


Books are immortal sons defying their sires.  ~ Plato


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


Never discourage anyone...who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.  ~ Plato


The soul of him who has education is whole and perfect and escapes the worst disease, but, if a man's education be neglected, he walks lamely through life and returns good for nothing to the world below.  ~ Plato


If women are expected to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things.  ~ Plato


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


One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.  ~ Plato


I'm trying to think, don't confuse me with facts.  ~ Plato


Death is not the worst that can happen to men.  ~ Plato


We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when adults are afraid of the light.  ~ Plato


When men speak ill of thee, live so that nobody will believe them.  ~ Plato


Necessity is the mother of invention.  ~ Plato


Love is the pursuit of the whole.  ~ Plato


Those who tell the stories rule society.  ~ Plato


The part can never be well unless the whole is well.  ~ Plato


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


People who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.  ~ Plato


Man...is a tame or civilized animal; never the less, he requires proper instruction and a fortunate nature, and then of all animals he becomes the most divine and most civilized; but if he be insufficiently or ill- educated he is the most savage of earthly creatures.  ~ 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


You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.  ~ Plato