Quotes from Plato

Ich weiß, dass ich nicht weiß".

And if we are good, we are beneficent: for all good things are beneficial. Are they not?

It has been objected that justice is honesty in the sense of Glaucon and Adeimantus, but is taken by Socrates to mean all virtue.

There is a story, which even you have preserved, that once upon a time Paethon, the son of Helios, having yoked the steeds in his father's chariot, because he was not able to drive them in the path of his father, burnt up all that was upon the earth, and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt.

lo semejante se une siempre a su semejante.

The very good and the very wicked are both quite rare, and that most men are between those extremes.

And the same will be true of the orator and the oratory in relation to all other arts. The orator need have no knowledge of the truth about thongs; it is enough for him to have discovered a knack of persuading the ignorant that he seems to know more than the experts.

When the modes of music change, the fundamental laws of the State always change with them.

not to be learned; for all knowledge appears

No matter at all, I replied; for the point is not who said the words, but whether they are true or not.

there are some, both at present and of old, who recognized that Spartanizing is much more a love of wisdom than a love of physical exercise, knowing that the ability to utter such remarks belong to a a perfectly educated man.

Is it our chief aim in life to avoid risks?

Pues a mi, ni Méleto ni Ánito pueden ocasionarme ningún mal, aunque se lo propusieran. ¿Cómo pueden hacerlo, si estoy plenamente convencido de que un hombre malvado jamás puede perjudicar a un hombre justo?

Cronos, then lord of the world, knew that no mortal nature could endure the temptations of power, and therefore he appointed demons or demi-gods, who are of a superior race, to have dominion over man, as man has dominion over the animals

Only the body and its desires cause war, civil discord, and battles, for all wars are due to the desire to acquire wealth, and it is the body and the care of it, to which [d] we are enslaved, which compel us to acquire wealth, and all this makes us too busy to practice philosophy.

all started at the Temple of Apollo In Delphi. One of his friends approached the oracle with the question: "Is anyone wiser than Socrates?" the answer was "No." Socrates was profoundly puzzled by this episode. He claimed to know

Y no diremos también, amigo, que los hombres, al ser dañados, se hacen peores en lo que toca a la virtud humana? -Ni más ni menos. -¿ Y la justicia no es virtud humana? -También esto es forzoso. -Necesario es, por tanto, querido amigo, que los hombres que reciben daño se hagan más injustos. -Eso parece.

they all emulated and admired and were students of Spartan education, could tell their wisdom was of this sort by the brief but memorable remarks they each uttered when they met, writing what is on every man's lips: Know thyself, and Nothing too much.

what they love pious or holy; and what some of them love and others hate is both or neither. Shall this be our definition of piety and impiety?

SOCRATES: And is then all that is just pious? Or is all that is pious just, but not all that is just pious, but some of it is and some is not? [12] EUTHYPHRO: I do not follow what you are saying, Socrates.

Self-love is the source of that ignorant conceit of knowledge which is always doing and never succeeding.

no one is willing to govern; because no one likes to take in hand the reformation of evils which are not his concern without renumeration.

We should not allow into our minds the conviction that argumentation has nothing sound about it; much rather we should believe that it is we who are not yet sound and that we must take courage and be eager to attain soundness, you and the others for the sake of your whole life still to come, and I for the sake of death itself.

the true ruler is not meant by nature to regard his own interest, but that of his subjects