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.

“A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.” – Plato
“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
“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
“And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul.” – Plato
“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
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.” – Plato
“Better a little which is well done, than a great deal imperfectly.” – Plato
“Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.” – Plato
“Courage is knowing what not to fear.” – Plato
“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
“Don’t force your children into your ways, for they were created for a time different from your own.” – Plato
“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
“Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.” – Plato
“Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.” – Plato
“Hardly any human being is capable of pursuing two professions or two arts rightly.” – Plato
“He who is not a good servant will not be a good master.” – Plato
“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
“Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.” – Plato
“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” – Plato
“I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.” – Plato
“If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life.” – Plato
“Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil.” – Plato
“Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being.” – Plato
“Life must be lived as play.” – Plato
“Man – a being in search of meaning.” – Plato
“Necessity… the mother of invention.” – Plato
“Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.” – Plato
“No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.” – Plato
“No man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nature and education.” – Plato
“Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety.” – Plato
“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
“Philosophy begins in wonder.” – Plato
“Reality is created by the mind, we can change our reality by changing our mind.” – Plato
“The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile.” – Plato
“The greatest wealth is to live content with little.” – Plato
“The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself.” – Plato
“The key is not to live but to live well.” – Plato
“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
“The measure of a man is what he does with power.” – Plato
“The one who learns and learns and doesn’t practice is like the one who plows and plows and never plants.” – Plato
“The right question is usually more important than the right answer.” – Plato
“The wise man will want to be ever with him who is better than himself.” – Plato
“There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.” – Plato
“There is no harm in repeating a good thing.” – Plato
“Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself.” – Plato
“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
“To begin is the most important part of any quest and by far the most courageous.” – Plato
“Truth is the beginning of every good to the gods, and of every good to man.” – Plato
“We are twice armed if we fight with faith.” – Plato
“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
“We do not learn, and what we call learning is only a process of recollection.” – Plato
“Wealth is well known to be a great comforter.” – Plato
“When you feel grateful, you become great, and eventually attract great things.” – Plato
“Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.” – Plato
“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” – Plato

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