65 Plato Quotes on Life, Wisdom and Politics

An ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical period, Plato is considered a fundamental piece of the Western philosophy puzzle. A student of Socrates and a teacher of Aristotle , Plato's thinking brought about much of the written dialogue and dialectic forms we know today. It's no surprise, then, that many Plato quotes about life, love and culture still resonate.

Plato's most famous work is the Republic , which is a Socratic dialogue that outlines justice as it relates to the order and character of a just city or state as well as the just man. Another of his most famous works is his "Theory of Forms" which states that the physical world is not as real or true as "forms," or put in the simplest of terms, ideas.

It is true that this man was an integral part of the past that led to our future today. His thinking and ideologies forged a path that allowed for many other philosophers to do the same. In order to get to know his philosophies and thinking a bit better, we have a list of 65 quotes by Plato for you to enjoy.

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65 Plato Quotes

1. “Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed, by the masses.”

2. “All I really know is the extent of my own ignorance.”

3. “Love is the name for our pursuit of wholeness, for our desire to be complete.”

4. “Education is teaching our children to desire the right things.”

5. “It is right to give every man his due.”

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6. “In politics we presume that everyone who knows how to get votes knows how to administer a city or a state. When we are ill… we do not ask for the handsomest physician, or the most eloquent one.”

7. “He who is of calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age.”

8. “No one knows whether death, which people fear to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good.”

9. “I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”

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10. “You should not honor men more than truth.”

11. “One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”

12. “He who commits injustice is ever made more wretched than he who suffers it.”

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

14. “Pleasure is the bait of sin.”

15. “There is no harm in repeating a good thing.”

16. “Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.”

17. “Time is the moving image of reality.”

18. “The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.”

19. "Necessity is the mother of invention."

20. “Death is not the worst that can happen to men.”

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21. “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.”

22. “For good nurture and education implant good constitutions.”

23. “No wealth can ever make a bad man at peace with himself.”

24. “No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.”

25. “Not to help justice in her need would be an impiety.”

26. “At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.”

27. “Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil.”

28. “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.”

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

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

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

32. “The excessive increase of anything causes a reaction in the opposite direction.”

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

34. “Justice means minding one’s own business and not meddling with other men’s concerns.”

35. “Love is a serious mental disease.”

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

37. “Love is the pursuit of the whole.”

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38. “Life must be lived as play.”

39. “No one ever teaches well who wants to teach, or governs well who wants to govern.”

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

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41. “Knowledge is the food of the soul.”

42. “Our object in the construction of the state is the greatest happiness of the whole, and not that of any one class.”

43. “Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.”

44. “Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.”

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

46. “If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life.”

47. “You’re my star, a stargazer too, and I wish that I were heaven, with a billion eyes to look at you.”

48. “Attention to health is life’s greatest hindrance.”

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

50. “He who steals a little steals with the same wish as he who steals much, but with less power.”

51. “Poets utter great and wise things which they do not themselves understand.”

52. “Democracy passes into despotism.”

53. “If a man can be properly said to love something, it must be clear that he feels affection for it as a whole, and does not love part of it to the exclusion of the rest.”

54. “No man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nature and education.”

55. “Truth is the beginning of every good to the gods, and of every good to man.”

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56. “Have you ever sensed that our soul is immortal and never dies?”

57. “False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.”

58. “A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.”

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

60. “Tyranny naturally arises out of democracy.”

61. “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.”

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

63. “True friendship can exist only between equals.”

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

65. “No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.”

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