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Plato

97 quotes

Plato (circa 428–348 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher and the founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. A student of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle, Plato's dialogues exploring justice, beauty, equality, and knowledge have shaped Western thought for over two millennia.

“Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself.”

— Plato

Inspirational

All Quotes by Plato

“Whatever deceives men seems to produce a magical enchantment.”

— Plato

Men

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

— Plato

Anger

“He who is not a good servant will not be a good master.”

— Plato

Good

“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

Good

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

— Plato

Education

“Wisdom alone is the science of other sciences.”

— Plato

Alone

“Science is nothing but perception.”

— Plato

Science

“I would fain grow old learning many things.”

— Plato

Learning

“Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself.”

— Plato

Inspirational

“One man cannot practice many arts with success.”

— Plato

Success

“Any man may easily do harm, but not every man can do good to another.”

— Plato

Good

“Courage is a kind of salvation.”

— Plato

Courage

“Cunning... is but the low mimic of wisdom.”

— Plato

Wisdom

“And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul.”

— Plato

Food

“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

Power

“Life must be lived as play.”

— Plato

Life

“Entire ignorance is not so terrible or extreme an evil, and is far from being the greatest of all too much cleverness and too much learning, accompanied with ill bringing-up, are far more fatal.”

— Plato

Knowledge

“There's a victory, and defeat the first and best of victories, the lowest and worst of defeats which each man gains or sustains at the hands not of another, but of himself.”

— Plato

Best

“Excess generally causes reaction, and produces a change in the opposite direction, whether it be in the seasons, or in individuals, or in governments.”

— Plato

Change

“Those who intend on becoming great should love neither themselves nor their own things, but only what is just, whether it happens to be done by themselves or others.”

— Plato

Great