Plato (c. 427 BC – c. 347 BC) was an immensely influential classical Greek philosopher, student of Socrates, teacher of Aristotle, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens.
Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the foundations of Western philosophy and science.
Plato’s sophistication as a writer is evident in his Socratic dialogues; thirty-six dialogues and thirteen letters have been ascribed to him.
Plato’s dialogues have been used to teach a range of subjects, including philosophy, logic, ethics, rhetoric, religion and mathematics.
Plato is one of the most important founding figures in Western philosophy.
His writings explored justice, beauty and equality, and also contained discussions in aesthetics, political philosophy, theology, cosmology, epistemology and the philosophy of language.
Never discourage anyone…who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.
Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.
False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.
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.
At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.
The gods are not magicians who transform themselves; neither do they deceive mankind in any way.
Democracy, which is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.
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.
A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.
Wealth is the parent of luxury and indolence, and poverty of meanness and viciousness, and both of discontent.
The madness of love is the greatest of heaven’s blessings
Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity
Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil.
All the gold which is under or upon the earth is not enough to give in exchange for virtue.
Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.
For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.
I shall assume that your silence gives consent
Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable.
Love is the joy of the good, the wonder of the wise, the amazement of the Gods.
The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life.
Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.
The greatest wealth is to live content with little.
God is not the author of all things, but of good only.
No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.
We are twice armed if we fight with faith.
Knowledge without justice ought to be called cunning rather than wisdom.
He who commits injustice is ever made more wretched than he who suffers it.
Courage is knowing what not to fear.
Death is not the worst that can happen to men.
You should not honor men more than truth.
Life must be lived as play.
He who is not a good servant will not be a good master.
Only the dead have seen the end of war.
Better a little which is well done, than a great deal imperfectly.
Necessity… the mother of invention.
Knowledge becomes evil if the aim be not virtuous.
There is no harm in repeating a good thing.
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.
Excess generally causes reaction, and produces a change in the opposite direction, whether it be in the seasons, or in individuals, or in governments.
Man is a prisoner who has no right to open the door of his prison and run away… A man should wait, and not take his own life until God summons him.
