Quotes from Plato

It is not Love absolutely that is good or praiseworthy, but only that Love which impels meant to love aright.

Dear Pan and all you gods of this place, grant me that I may become beautiful within; and that what is in my possession outside me may be in friendly accord with what is inside. And may I count the wise man as rich; and may my pile of gold be of a size that no one but a man of moderate desires could bear or carry it. - Rowe's translation of Socrates' prayer to Pan

He aquí por qué no tenemos tiempo para pensar en la filosofía; y el mayor de nuestros males consiste en que en el acto de tener tiempo y ponernos a meditar, de repente interviene el cuerpo en nuestras indagaciones, nos embaraza, nos turba y no nos deja discernir la verdad.

Then whatever the soul possesses, to that she comes bearing life? Yes, certainly. And is there any opposite to life? There is, he said. And what is that? Death.

is good for anything ought not to calculate the chance of living or dying; he ought only to consider whether in doing anything he is doing right or wrong—acting the part of a good man or of a bad.

Éste es en general el error de la juventud: contentarse con semiverdades y creer conocer lo que no conoce; sobre todo, éste era el de la juventud ateniense en la época de Sócrates y de Platón, viciada como estaba por los sofistas.

Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?

Y bien; purificar el alma, ¿no es, como antes decíamos, separarla del cuerpo, y acostumbrarla a encerrarse y recogerse en sí misma, renunciando al comercio con aquel cuanto sea posible, y viviendo, sea en esta vida, sea en la otra, sola y desprendida del cuerpo, como quien se desprende de una cadena?

You seem to think me inferior to the swans in prophecy. They sing before too, but when they realize that they must die they sing most and most beautifully, as they rejoice that they are about to depart to [85] join the god whose servants they are. But men, because of their own fear of death, tell lies about the swans and say that they lament their death and sing in sorrow.

Los que gustan de contemplar la verdad

He who is the victim of his passions and the slave of pleasure will of course desire to make his beloved as agreeable to himself as possible.

Pero estar ansioso de aprender y ser filósofo ¿No es una misma cosa?

But then, I said, speaking the truth and paying your debts is not a correct definition of justice. Quite correct, Socrates, if Simonides is to be believed, said Polemarchus interposing. I

Por tanto, del hombre justo hay que pensar que, si vive en pobreza o en enfermedades o en algún otro de los que parecen males, todo ello terminará para él en bien sea durante su vida, sea después de su muerte. Porque nunca será abandonado por los dioses el que se esfuerza por hacerse justo y parecerse a la divinidad, en cuanto es posible al ser humano la práctica de la virtud. -Es de creer -dijo- que el tal no será abandonado por su semejante.

For the body which is moved from without is soulless; but that which is moved from within has a soul... (Tr. Jowett)

At that point they all agreed not to get drunk that evening; they decided to drink only as much as pleased them.

Porque, en efecto, la injusticia produce sediciones, ¡oh, Trasímaco!, y odios y luchas de unos contra otros, mientras que la justicia trae concordia y amistad; ¿no es así?

The society we have described can never grow into a reality or see the light of day, and there will be no end to the troubles of states, or indeed, my dear Glaucon, of humanity itself, till philosophers become rulers 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, Plato's Republic

Fanny Price leaves the poverty of her Portsmouth home to be brought up among the family of her

Because to the mortal creature, generation is a sort of eternity and immortality,' she replied; 'and if, as has been already admitted, love is of the everlasting possession of the good, all men will necessarily desire immortality together with good: Wherefore love is of immortality.

Querido Critão! Quão precioso o teu ardor, se alguma retidão o acompanhasse!

Llamo hombre vicioso al amante popular que ama el cuerpo más bien que el alma; porque su amor no puede tener duración, puesto que ama una cosa que no dura.

porque si teme, es esclavo.

I understand; you mean that he will be a ruler in the city of which we are the founders, and which exists in idea only; for I do not believe that there is such an one anywhere on earth? In heaven, I replied, there is laid up a pattern of it, methinks, which he who desires may behold, and beholding, may set his own house in order. But whether such an one exists, or ever will exist in fact, is no matter; for he will live after the manner of that city, having nothing to do with any other.