Quotes from Plato

Los hombres todos están persuadidos de que la virtud puede ser adquirida. Porque nadie castiga a un hombre malo sólo por ha sido malo, a no ser que se trate de alguna bestia feroz que castigue para saciar su crueldad. Pero el que castiga con razón, castiga, no por las faltas pasadas, porque ya no es posible que lo que ya ha sucedido deje de suceder, sino por las faltas que puedan sobrevenir, para que el culpable no reincida y sirva de ejemplo a los demás su castigo.

Entonces Fedro tomó la palabra y dijo: —Mi querido Agatón, si continúas respondiendo a Sócrates, no se cuidará de lo demás, porque él, teniendo con quien conversar, ya está contento, sobre todo si su interlocutor es hermoso.

The good soul, by her own excellence, improves the body as far as this may be possible.

GORGIAS: Yes. SOCRATES: Do you mean that you will teach him to gain the ears of the multitude on any subject, and this not by instruction but by persuasion? GORGIAS: Quite so.

Rehúsa nadie enseñar a los demás lo que es justo? ¿Se guarda el secreto de esta ciencia, como se practica con todas las demás? No, sin duda; y la razón es porque la virtud y la justicia de cada particular son útiles a toda la sociedad. He aquí por qué todo el mundo se siente inclinado a enseñar a los demás todo lo relativo a las leyes y a la justicia.

if it be shown that absolute unity is also many and the absolute many again are one, then I shall be amazed.

SOCRATES: First, then, let us consider whether the doing of injustice exceeds the suffering in the consequent pain: Do the injurers suffer more than the injured? POLUS: No, Socrates; certainly not.

?ežnja za filozofijom je iskra u duši koja se, kada se jednom zapali, održava i više ne gasi.

SOCRATES: Say rather, with the wisest of all living men, if you are willing to accord that title to Protagoras. COMPANION: What! Is Protagoras in Athens? SOCRATES: Yes; he has been here two days. COMPANION: And do you just come from an interview with him? SOCRATES: Yes; and I have heard and said many things.

A man's duty is to find out where the truth is, or if he cannot, at least to take the best possible human doctrine and the hardest to disprove, and to ride on this like a raft over the waters of life.

Una de las mejores frases que ha sido atribuida a Pítaco, y que más han alabado los sabios, es justamente esta: es difícil ser virtuoso.

Si es cierto que lo agradable es bueno, no es posible que un hombre, sabiendo que puede hacer cosas mejores que las que hace, y conociendo que puede hacerlas, haga sin embargo las malas y deje las buenas, estando en su voluntad el poder escoger. Ser inferior a sí mismo no es otra cosa que estar en la ignorancia; y ser superior a sí mismo no es otra cosa que poseer la ciencia.

Costoro sanno che la filosofia, accorgendosi del potere di questa prigione, terribile perché opera attraverso i desideri (e per questo chi è prigioniero è complice della sua stessa prigionia), quelli che amano il sapere sanno che la filosofia, prendendo la loro anima in queste condizioni, dolcemente la esorta e cerca di liberarla.

I think that you or anyone else who claims that there is an absolute idea of each thing would agree in the first place that none of them exists in us. No, for if it did, it would no longer be absolute.

anarchy should have no place in the life of man or of the beasts who are subject to man.

Sometimes joking is a relief from seriousness.

Well, although I do not suppose that either of us knows anything really beautiful and good, I am better off than he is,— for he knows nothing, and thinks that he knows; I neither know nor think that I know.

But can that which does not exist have anything pertaining or belonging to it? Of course not. Then the one has no name, nor is there any description or knowledge or perception or opinion of it....And it is neither named nor described nor thought of nor known, nor does any existing thing perceive it.

O that we were wise, Ion, and that you could truly call us so; but you rhapsodes and actors, and the poets whose verses you sing, are wise; whereas I am a common man, who only speaks the truth. For consider what a very commonplace and trivial things this which I have said - a thing which any man might say: that when a man has acquired a knowledge of a whole art, the enquiry into good and bad is one and the same.

Then not he who does evil, but he who does good, is temperate? Yes, he said; and you, friend, would agree. No matter whether I should or not; just now, not what I think, but what you are saying, is the point at issue. Well, he answered; I mean to say, that he who does evil, and not good, is not temperate; and that he is temperate who does good, and not evil: for temperance I define in plain words to be the doing of good actions.

A free soul ought not to pursue any study slavishly; for while bodily labours performed under constraint do not harm the body, nothing that is learned under compulsion stays in the mind.

We know it to be universally true that every seed and growth, whether vegetable or animal, that the more vigorous it is the more it falls short of its proper perfection when deprived of the food, the place, the season that suits it. For evil is more opposed to the good than the not-good.

You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.

According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with 4 arms, 4 legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate parts, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves.