Plato is one of history’s most renowned philosophers. His profound thoughts on life, knowledge, and society have shaped many minds over centuries. He was a key figure in the history of Ancient Greek and Western philosophy. Read some of the best Plato quotes on life, love, philosophy, democracy, and education that will make you think deeply about these aspects of life.
Plato was a student of the great philosopher Socrates, and the mentor of Aristotle and is best known as the author of philosophical works of unparalleled influence.
Also Check: Heraclitus Quotes
He was not only a great thinker and writer but a visionary whose profound insights into the nature of reality, justice, ethics, and the human soul continue to inspire the minds of thinkers, scholars, and truth seekers.
Plato founded the Academy, a university where he taught his philosophical works that later became known as Platonism.
Plato also known as the Father Of Idealism was a torchbearer of knowledge who had a profound and lasting impact on political thought.
Some of his famous works include The Republic, Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Symposium, Phaedrus, Statesmen, and The Laws.
If you are interested in knowing about ethics, morals, virtues, or philosophy, delve into the wisdom of ancient Greece and explore the timeless teachings of Plato, the greatest philosopher of all time.
Top 10 Plato Quotes
- “Ideas are the source of all things.” — Plato
- “The greatest wealth is to live content with little.” — Plato
Plato quotes - “The measure of a man is what he does with power.” — Plato
quotes from Plato - “No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.” — Plato
Plato quote - “Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.” — Plato
- “A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.” — Plato
- “For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.” — Plato
Platos quotes - “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.” — Plato
Plato quotes images - “If women are expected to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things.” — Plato
- “Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.” — Plato
Plato famous quotes
Famous Quotes By Plato
- “Courage is knowing what not to fear.” — Plato
- “There is no harm in repeating a good thing.” — Plato
- “Thinking – the talking of the soul with itself.” — Plato
- “You should not honor men more than truth.” — Plato
- “All men are by nature equal, made all of the same earth by one workman.” — Plato
- “Knowledge without justice ought to be called cunning rather than wisdom.” — Plato
- “Truth is the beginning of every good to the gods, and of every good to man.” — Plato
- “Poverty doesn’t come because of the decrease of wealth but because of the increase of desires.” — Plato
- “Excess of liberty, whether it lies in state or individuals, seems only to pass into excess of slavery.” — Plato
- “An empty vessel makes the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers.” — Plato
Plato Quotes
- “The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” — Plato
- “Books give a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.” — Plato
- “Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.” — 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
- “There is in every one of us, even those who seem to be most moderate, a type of desire that is terrible, wild, and lawless.” — Plato
- “One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.” — Plato
- “The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile.” — Plato
- “No man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nature and education.” — Plato
- “Wealth, and poverty; one is the parent of luxury and indolence, and the other of meanness and viciousness, and both of discontent.” — 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
Plato Quotes About Love
- “Love is a serious mental disease.” — Plato
- “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.” — Plato
- “The madness of love is the greatest of heaven’s blessings.” — Plato
- “Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.” — Plato
- “When you feel grateful, you become great, and eventually attract great things.” — Plato
- “There are three classes of men; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain.” — Plato
- “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” — Plato
- “To love rightly is to love what is orderly and beautiful in an educated and disciplined way.” — Plato
- “Love is born into every human being; it calls back the halves of our original nature together; it tries to make one out of two and heal the wound of human nature.” — Plato
- “Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.” — Plato
Best Quotes Of Plato On Life
- “Only the dead have seen the end of war.” — Plato
- “We are twice armed if we fight with faith.” — Plato
- “The seen is the changing, the unseen is the unchanging.” — Plato
- “If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life.” — Plato
- “The right question is usually more important than the right answer.” — Plato
- “The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life.” — Plato
- “Reality is created by the mind, we can change our reality by changing our mind.” — Plato
- “Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.” — Plato
- “I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” — Plato
- “Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.” — Plato
Plato Quotes
- “Writing is the geometry of the soul.” — Plato
- “Necessity is the mother of invention.” — Plato
- “The beginning is the most important part of the work.” — Plato
- “False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.” — Plato
- “And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul.” — Plato
- “The one who learns and learns and doesn’t practice is like the one who plows and plows and never plants.” — Plato
- “If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools.” — 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
- “The untrained mind keeps up a running commentary, labelling everything, judging everything. Best to ignore that commentary. Don’t argue or resist, just ignore. Deprived of attention and interest, this voice gets quieter and quieter and eventually just shuts up.” — Plato
- “When two friends, like you and me, are in the mood to chat, we have to go about it in a gentler and more dialectical way. By ‘more dialectical’, I mean not only that we give real responses, but that we base our responses solely on what the interlocutor admits that he himself knows.” — Plato
Plato Quotes About Knowledge And Wisdom
- “Knowledge becomes evil if the aim be not virtuous.” — Plato
- “Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.” — 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
- “Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.” — 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
More About Plato
Plato was an ancient philosopher from Athens who was known for his profound ideas that continue to resonate today.
His work is covered with a plethora of interests and ideas, including theology, political philosophy, justice, beauty, and equality.
Plato did not believe in abstract ideas but was concerned with the practical application of philosophy in society and governance.
His concept of the “philosopher-king” argued that the ideal state – that ensured maximum happiness for all its citizens – could only be brought into being by a ruler possessed of absolute knowledge, obtained through philosophical study.
Conclusion
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