Quotes About Philosophy

The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways - I to die, and you to live. Which is better God only knows.

Y si al que está en esas condiciones se le acerca alguien y le dice tranquilamente la verdad, esto es, que no hay en él razón alguna, que está privado de ella y que la razón es algo que no se puede adquirir sin entregarse completamente a la tarea de conseguirla, ¿crees que es fá­cil que haga caso quien está sometido a tantas malas in­fluencias?

quien durante tanto tiempo se ha ocupado de estos asuntos pueda exponerlas opiniones de los demás, pero no las suyas. -¿Pues qué? -dije yo-. ¿Te parece bien que hable uno de las cosas que no sabe como si las supiese?

La filosofía es la geometría de las ideas

pedagogical

The true lover of learning then must from his earliest youth, as far as in him lies, desire all truth...

why should we not calmly and patiently review our own thoughts, and thoroughly examine and see what these appearances in us really are?

I am wiser than this man, for neither of us appears to know anything great and good; but he fancies he knows something, although he knows nothing; whereas I, as I do not know anything, so I do not fancy I do. In this trifling particular, then, I appear to be wiser than he, because I do not fancy I know what I do not know.

Porque temer la muerte, atenienses, no es otra cosa que creerse sabio sin serlo, y creer conocer lo que no se sabe. En efecto, nadie conoce la muerte, ni sabe si es el mayor de los bienes para el hombre. Sin embargo, se la teme, como si se supiese con certeza que es el mayor de todos los males. ¡Ah! ¿No es una ignorancia vergonzante creer conocer una cosa que no se conoce?

Then you have sufficient indication, he said, that any man whom you see resenting death was not a lover of wisdom but a lover of the body, and also a lover of wealth or of honors, either or both.

Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and political greatness and wisdom meet in one, and those commoner natures who pursue either to the exclusion of the other are compelled to stand aside, cities will never have rest from their evils,—nor the human race, as I believe,—and then only will this our State have a possibility of life and behold the light of day.

Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and political greatness and wisdom meet in one, and those commoner natures who pursue either to the exclusion of the other are compelled to stand aside, cities will never have rest from their evils,—nor

But I have no time for such things; and the reason, my friend, is this. I am still unable, as the Delphic inscription orders, to know myself; and it really seems to be ridiculous to look into other things before I have understood that.

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.

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?

Los que gustan de contemplar la verdad

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

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)

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

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.

You're not thinking straight, sir, if you think that a man who's any use at all should give any opposing weight to the risk of living or dying, instead of looking to this alone whenever he does anything: whether his actions are just or unjust, the deeds of a good or bad man.