Quotes from Plato

repeating the commonplaces about atheism and materialism and sophistry, which are the stock-accusations against all philosophers when there is nothing else to be said of them.

Necesariamente aquel cuyo imperio es el deseo, y el placer su esclavitud, hará que el amado le proporcione el mayor gozo. A un enfermo le gusta todo lo que no le contraría; pero le es desagradable lo que es igual o superior a él. El que ama, pues, no soportará de buen grado que su amado le sea mejor o igual, sino que se esforzará siempre en que le sea inferior o más débil.

Les prescribirás, pues, que se apliquen particular­mente a aquella enseñanza que les haga capaces de pre­guntar y responder con la máxima competencia posible?

We should rather say that he is a friend who is, as well as seems, good; and that he who seems only, and is not good, only seems to be and is not a friend; and of an enemy the same may be said.

And that only these two things, true belief and knowledge, guide correctly, and that if a man possesses these he gives correct guidance. The things that turn out right by some chance are not due to human guidance, but where there is correct human guidance it is due to two things, true belief or knowledge.

I am afraid that other people do not realize that the one aim of those who practice philosophy in the proper manner is to practice for dying and death. Now if this is true, it would be strange indeed if they were eager for this all their lives and then resent it when what they have wanted and practiced for a long time comes upon them.

La amistad del amante no brota del buen sentido, sino como las ganas de comer, del ansia de saciarse.

So we would be right to say the seers and prophets just mentioned are 'divine' and 'inspired' – likewise, everyone with a knack for poetry. Likewise, politicians and public figures are nothing less than divine and possessed when – under some god's inspiration and influence – they give speeches that lead to success in important matters, even they have no idea what they are talking about. – Quite so.

Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself.

And so they grow richer and richer, and the more they think of making a fortune the less they think of virtue; for when riches and virtue are placed together in the scales of the balance the one always rises as the other falls.

And this is because injustice creates divisions and hatreds and fighting, and justice imparts harmony and friendship; is not that true, Thrasymachus? I agree, he said, because I do not wish to quarrel with you.

I believe that Periander or Perdiccas or Xerxes or Ismenias the Theban, or some other rich and mighty man, who had a great opinion of his own power, was the first to say that justice is 'doing good to your friends and harm to your enemies.

mira si no es más bien necesario que el que desea le falte la cosa que desea, o bien que no la desee si no le falta.

The not- beautiful is as real as the beautiful, the not-just as the just. And the essence of the not-beautiful is to be separated from and opposed to a certain kind of existence which is termed beautiful. And this opposition and negation is the not-being of which we are in search, and is one kind of being.

que es dueño de sí mismo es también esclavo, y el que es esclavo, dueño; ya que en todos estos dichos se habla de una misma persona.

Así, pues, lo lleno de cosas más reales y que es más real en sí mismo, ¿está más realmente lleno que lo lleno de cosas menos reales y que es además menos real en sí mismo?

How you, O Athenians, have been affected by my accusers, I cannot tell; but I know that they almost made me forget who I was—so persuasively did they speak; and yet they have hardly uttered a word of truth.

So in the first place, such things show clearly that the philosopher more than other men frees the soul from association with the body as much as possible?

el que desea, desea lo que no está seguro de poseer, lo que no existe al presente, lo que no posee, lo que no tiene, lo que le falta. Esto es, pues, desear y amar.

En todos los respectos, pues, el alabador de la justi­cia dirá verdad y mentirá el de la injusticia. Ya se mire al placer, ya a la buena fama, ya al provecho, el que encomia lo justo acierta y el que lo censura no dice nada en razón y ni siquiera conoce lo que censura.

That I learn of others, I replied, is quite true; but that I am ungrateful I wholly deny. Money I have none, and therefore I pay in praise, which is all I have; and how ready I am to praise any one who appears to me to speak well you will very soon find out when you answer; for I expect that you will answer well.

if one of us, or someone else, merely {12} says that something is so, do we accept that it is so? Or should we examine what the speaker means?

Then this must be our notion of the just man, that even when he is in poverty or sickness, or any other seeming misfortune, all things will in the end work together for good to him in life and death: for the gods have a care of any one whose desire is to become just and to be like God, as far as man can attain the divine likeness, by the pursuit of virtue? Yes, he said; if he is like God he will surely not be neglected by him.

El asombro es la sensación de un filósofo y la filosofía empieza con el asombro