Looking for the best quotes by Plato on life, governance, truth, wisdom, knowledge, and many more? We are providing you with a comprehensive list of Plato quotes that will empower you with great leadership skills, knowledge, and wisdom in life.
If you are looking for great quotes from a person regarded as the father of Western philosophy, Plato’s quotes are the ones for you!
Who is Plato?
Born in 420s BC in Athens during what is called the classical period in Ancient Greece, Plato was a famous Greek philosopher. He was a student of the renowned Socrates and the teacher of the famous Aristotle.
He was full of ideas in mathematics and political theory. He is one of the professionals whose ideas have had enormous effects on philosophy and human nature. His contributions have continued to shape knowledge for millennia all over the world. Also check, Marcus Aurelius’s quotes for a fearless life
Some of the less-known facts about Plato include the following;
- Apart from philosophical thoughts, Plato also influenced spirituality and religion. This is especially so through what is called Neoplatonism by his interpreter Plotinus. Specifically, Plato influenced Christianity through Augustine and other Church Fathers and Islamic philosophy through such figures as Al-Farabi.
- Throughout his adult life, Plato was entangled in the politics of the city of Syracuse.
- At one time, Dion of Syracuse became one of Plato’s disciples. However, this tyrant turned against Plato, and had him almost killed, but ended up sold into slavery instead. Fortunately, another philosopher called Anniceris bought Plato’s freedom for 20 minas and sent him back home.
Plato Quotes About Life
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.
Truth is the beginning of every good to the gods, and of every good to man.
Courage is knowing what not to fear.
No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.
No man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nature and education.
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.
You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.
You should not honor men more than truth.
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.
When you feel grateful, you become great, and eventually attract great things.
The measure of a man is what he does with power.
The beginning is the most important part of the work.
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.
Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.
Plato Quotes About Love
The madness of love is the greatest of heaven’s blessings.
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.
Love is a serious mental disease.
The object of education is to teach us to love what is beautiful.
Love is simply the name for the desire and pursuit of the whole.
You’re my Star, a stargazer too, and I wish that I were Heaven, with a billion eyes to look at you!
Love is the pursuit of the whole.
If a man can be properly said to love something, it must be clear that he feels affection for it as a whole and does not love part of it to the exclusion of the rest.
Men of Athens, I honor and love you; but I shall obey God rather than you, and while I have life and strength I shall never cease from the practice and teaching of philosophy.
The love of the gods belongs to anyone who has given to true virtue and nourished it, and if any human being could become immortal, it would be he.
He whom loves touches not walks in darkness.
There are three classes of men; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain.
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.
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.
To love rightly is to love what is orderly and beautiful in an educated and disciplined way.
Plato Quotes About Wisdom
Poverty doesn’t come because of the decrease of wealth but because of the increase in desires.
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.
If women are expected to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things.
There is no harm in repeating a good thing.
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.
If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools.
I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.
We are twice armed if we fight with faith.
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.
The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.
An empty vessel makes the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers.
Excess of liberty, whether it lies in state or individuals, seems only to pass into excess of slavery.
Plato Quotes About Knowledge
A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.
Knowledge without justice ought to be called cunning rather than wisdom.
Knowledge becomes evil if the aim is not virtuous.
If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life.
Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.
Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools do because they have to say something.
Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.
The greatest wealth is to live content with little.
The right question is usually more important than the right answer.
The one who learns and learns and doesn’t practice is like the one who plows and plows and never plants.
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.
Reality is created by the mind, we can change our reality by changing our mind.
False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.
The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life.
Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.
The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life.
