Quotes from Plato

Courage is a kind of salvation. Courage is knowing what not to fear.

the most important thing is not life, but the good life.

we must go where the argument carries us, as a vessel runs before the wind.

A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.

Mankind censure injustice fearing that they may be the victims of it, and not because they shrink from committing it.

There will be no end to the troubles of the state or indeed of humanity until philosophers become kings or until those we now call kings really and truly become philosophers.

He who refuses to rule is liable to be ruled by one who is worse than himself.

Knowledge unqualified is knowledge simply of something learned.

But the truth is, O men of Athens, that God only is wise; and by his answer he intends to show that the wisdom of men is worth little or nothing; he is not speaking of Socrates, he is only using my name by way of illustration, as if he said, He, O men, is the wisest, who, like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing.

Attention to health is life's greatest hindrance.

Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools speak because they have to say something

virtue does not spring from riches, but riches and all other human blessings, both private and public, from virtue.

Life must be lived as play, playing certain games, making sacrifices, singing and dancing, and then a man will be able to propitiate the gods, and defend himself against his enemies, and win in the contest.

Love is a great spirit. Everything spiritual is in between god and mortal.

Until philosophers rule as kings or those who are now called kings and leading men genuinely and adequately philosophise, that is, until political power and philosophy entirely coincide, while the many natures who at present pursue either one exclusively are forcibly prevented from doing so, cities will have no rest from evils,... nor, I think, will the human race. (Republic 473c-d)

Socrates: This man, on one hand, believes that he knows something, while not knowing [anything]. On the other hand, I – equally ignorant – do not believe [that I know anything].

Laws are partly formed for the sake of good men, in order to instruct them how they may live on friendly terms with one another, and partly for the sake of those who refuse to be instructed, whose spirit cannot be subdued, or softened, or hindered from plunging into evil.

It is only just that anything that grows up on its own should feel it has nothing to repay for an upbringing which it owes no one.

Whenever someone, on seeing something, realizes that that which he now sees wants to be like some other reality but falls short and cannot be like that other since it is inferior, do we agree that one who thinks this must have prior knowledge of that to which he says it is like, but deficiently so?

Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul.

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

For harmony is a symphony, and symphony is an agreement; but an agreement of disagreements while they disagree there cannot be; you cannot harmonize that which disagrees.

Beholding beauty with the eye of the mind, he will be enabled to bring forth, not images of beauty, but realities (for he has hold not of an image but of a reality), and bringing forth and nourishing true virtue to become the friend of God and be immortal, if mortal man may.

Virtue is the desire of things honourable and the power of attaining them.