Best quotes from Plato

Plato was an Athenian philosopher during the Classical period in Ancient Greece, founder of the Platonist school of thought, and the Academy, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. He is widely considered the pivotal figure in the history of Ancient Greek and Western philosophy, along with his teacher, Socrates, and his most famous student, Aristotle. Plato has also often been cited as one of the founders of Western religion and spirituality.

Plato was the innovator of the written dialogue and dialectic forms in philosophy. Plato also appears to have been the founder of Western political philosophy. His most famous contribution bears his name, Platonism (also ambiguously called either Platonic realism or Platonic idealism), the doctrine of the Forms known by pure reason to provide a realist solution to the problem of universals. He is also the namesake of Platonic love and the Platonic solids.

Some of the best quotes from Plato are listed below.

1. “A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.” – Plato
2. “A library of wisdom, is more precious than all wealth, and all things that are desirable cannot be compared to it. Whoever therefore claims to be zealous of truth, of happiness, of wisdom or knowledge, must become a lover of books.” – Plato
3. “All things will be produced in superior quantity and quality, and with greater ease, when each man works at a single occupation, in accordance with his natural gifts, and at the right moment, without meddling with anything else.” – Plato
4. “And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul.” – Plato
5. “Apply yourself both now and in the next life. Without effort, you cannot be prosperous. Though the land be good, you cannot have an abundant crop without cultivation.” – Plato
6. “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.” – Plato
7. “Better a little which is well done, than a great deal imperfectly.” – Plato
8. “Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.” – Plato
9. “Courage is knowing what not to fear.” – Plato
10. “Desires are only the lack of something: and those who have the greatest desires are in a worse condition than those who have none, or very slight ones.” – Plato
11. “Don’t force your children into your ways, for they were created for a time different from your own.” – Plato
12. “Excellence is not a gift, but a skill that takes practice. We do not act ‘rightly’ because we are ‘excellent’, in fact we achieve ‘excellence’ by acting ‘rightly.’” – Plato
13. “Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.” – Plato
14. “Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.” – Plato
15. “Hardly any human being is capable of pursuing two professions or two arts rightly.” – Plato
16. “He who is not a good servant will not be a good master.” – Plato
17. “He who is of calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age, but to him who is of an opposite disposition youth and age are equally a burden.” – Plato
18. “Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.” – Plato
19. “I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” – Plato
20. “I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.” – Plato
21. “If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life.” – Plato
22. “Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil.” – Plato
23. “Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being.” – Plato
24. “Life must be lived as play.” – Plato
25. “Man – a being in search of meaning.” – Plato
26. “Necessity… the mother of invention.” – Plato
27. “Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.” – Plato
28. “No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.” – Plato
29. “No man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nature and education.” – Plato
30. “Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety.” – Plato
31. “People are like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die.” – Plato
32. “Philosophy begins in wonder.” – Plato
33. “Reality is created by the mind, we can change our reality by changing our mind.” – Plato
34. “The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile.” – Plato
35. “The greatest wealth is to live content with little.” – Plato
36. “The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself.” – Plato
37. “The key is not to live but to live well.” – Plato
38. “The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depends upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation, the man of manly character and of wisdom.” – Plato
39. “The measure of a man is what he does with power.” – Plato
40. “The one who learns and learns and doesn’t practice is like the one who plows and plows and never plants.” – Plato
41. “The right question is usually more important than the right answer.” – Plato
42. “The wise man will want to be ever with him who is better than himself.” – Plato
43. “There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.” – Plato
44. “There is no harm in repeating a good thing.” – Plato
45. “Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself.” – Plato
46. “Those who intend on becoming great should love neither themselves nor their own things, but only what is just, whether it happens to be done by themselves or others.” – Plato
47. “To begin is the most important part of any quest and by far the most courageous.” – Plato
48. “Truth is the beginning of every good to the gods, and of every good to man.” – Plato
49. “We are twice armed if we fight with faith.” – Plato
50. “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” – Plato
51. “We do not learn, and what we call learning is only a process of recollection.” – Plato
52. “Wealth is well known to be a great comforter.” – Plato
53. “When you feel grateful, you become great, and eventually attract great things.” – Plato
54. “Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.” – Plato
55. “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” – Plato