Plato was a Greek philosopher from Athens who lived from 427-347 BCE. He was a student of Socrates and the teacher of Aristotle, and is widely considered to be one of the most influential thinkers in Western philosophy. Plato's most famous works are The Republic and The Symposium, both of which explore themes of justice, morality, and the ideal state. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Plato on life, love, reality.
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.
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.
A wise man speaks because he has something to say; a fool because he has to say something.
No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.
Enjoy life. There's plenty of time to be dead. Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.
Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything. Improve the World Through Music.
Love is a serious mental disease.
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 inspirational quote
Plato Image Quotes
Love is a serious mental disease. — Plato
Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance. — Plato
Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself. — Plato
The first and the best victory is to conquer self. — Plato
No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.
Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge. — Plato
Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. — Plato
Man is a being in search of meaning. — Plato
Those who tell the stories rule society.
Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul — Plato
The greatest wealth is to live content with little. — Plato
Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being — Plato
A true artist is someone who gives birth to a new reality. — Plato
Courage is knowing what not to fear.
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle. — Plato
When the mind is thinking it is talking to itself. — Plato
The measure of a man is what he does with power. — Plato
Plato Short Quotes
Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.
The first and the best victory is to conquer self.
He who is of a calm and happy nature, will hardly feel the pressure of age
The right question is usually more important than the right answer.
If we are to have any hope for the future, those who have lanterns must pass them on to others.
Man is a being in search of meaning.
I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.
The greatest wealth is to live content with little.
Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being
Only the dead have seen the end of war.
Your silence gives consent.
Plato Quotes About Life
The greatest privilege of a human life is to become a
midwife to the awakening of the Soul in another person. — Plato
The real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. — Plato
If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life. — Plato
The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself.
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
Education and admonition commence in the first years of childhood, and last to the very end of life. — Plato
A grateful mind is a great mind which eventually attracts to itself great things. — Plato
Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no mater how slow.
The good man is the only excellent musician, because he gives forth a perfect harmony not with a lyre or other instrument but with the whole of his life. — Plato
The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being. — Plato
No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death. — Plato
Music gives a soul to the universe. — Plato
motivational quote by Plato
Plato Quotes About Love
At the touch of love, everyone is a poet. — Plato
The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things. — Plato
Music then is simply the result of the effects of Love on rhythm and harmony. — Plato
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
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
Love is the joy of the good, the wonder of the wise, the amazement of the Gods. — Plato
Even the gods love jokes. — Plato
Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed, by the masses.
To love rightly is to love what is orderly and beautiful in an educated and disciplined way. — Plato
Love' is the name for our pursuit of wholeness, for our desire to be complete. — Plato
Romantic Art: The Hearts Awakening - Bouguereau At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet. — Plato
And when one of them meets the other half, the actual half of himself, whether he be a lover of youth or a lover of another sort, the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy and one will not be out of the other's sight, as I may say, even for a moment. — Plato
Plato Quotes About Reality
A true artist is someone who gives birth to a new reality. — Plato
The philosopher is in love with truth, that is, not with the changing world of sensation, which is the object of opinion, but with the unchanging reality which is the object of knowledge. — Plato
Those whose hearts are fixed on Reality itself deserve the title of Philosophers. — Plato
One trait in the philosopher's character we can assume is his love of the knowledge that reveals eternal reality, the realm unaffected by change and decay. — Plato
So their combinations with themselves and with each other give rise to endless complexities, which anyone who is to give a likely account of reality must survey. — Plato
Only a philosopher's mind grows wings, since its memory always keeps it as close as possible to those realities by being close to which the gods are divine. — Plato
The object of knowledge is what exists and its function to know about reality. — Plato
Reality is created by the mind, we can change our reality by changing our mind. — Plato
You cannot conceive the many without the one...The study of the unit is among those that lead the mind on and turn it to the vision of reality. — Plato
Plato Quotes About Politics
Mankind will never see an end of trouble until lovers of wisdom come to hold political power, or the holders of power become lovers of wisdom — Plato
The penalty that good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by men worse than themselves. — Plato
In politics we presume that everyone who knows how to get votes knows how to administer a city or a state. When we are ill... we do not ask for the handsomest physician, or the most eloquent one. — Plato
The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. — Plato
Just as it would be madness to settle on medical treatment for the body of a person by taking an opinion poll of the neighbors, so it is irrational to prescribe for the body politic by polling the opinions of the people at large. — Plato
Is there anything worse for a state than to be split and disunited? or anything better than cohesion and unity? — Plato
In one sense it is evident that the art of kingship does include the art of lawmaking. But the political ideal is not full authority for laws but rather full authority for a man who understands the art of kingship and has kingly ability. — Plato
For the introduction of a new kind of music must be shunned as imperiling the whole state; since styles of music are never disturbed without affecting the most important political institutions. — Plato
The human race will have no respite from evils until those who are really philosophers acquire political power or until, through some divine dispensation, those who rule and have political authority in the cities become real philosophers. — Plato
Plato Quotes About Democracy
Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty. — Plato
Democracy passes into despotism. — Plato
Democracy leads to anarchy, which is mob rule. — Plato
Democracy does not contain any force which will check the constant tendency to put more and more on the public payroll. The state is like a hive of bees in which the drones display, multiply and starve the workers so the idlers will consume the food and the workers will perish. — Plato
A democracy is a state in which the poor, gaining the upper hand, kill some and banish others, and then divide the offices among the remaining citizens equally, usually by lot. — Plato
These, then, will be some of the features of democracy... it will be, in all likelihood, an agreeable, lawless, parti-colored commonwealth, dealing with all alike on a footing of equality, whether they be really equal or not. — Plato
Freedom in a democracy is the glory of the state, and, therefore, in a democracy only will the freeman of nature deign to dwell. — Plato
In a democracy only will the freeman of nature design to dwell. — Plato
And so tyranny naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme form of liberty. — Plato
A delightful form of government, anarchic and motley, assigning a kind of equality indiscriminately to equals and unequals alike! — Plato
Plato Quotes About Success
Each man is capable of doing one thing well. If he attempts several, he will fail to achieve distinction in any. — Plato
For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories... The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile. — Plato
Let men of all ranks whether they are successful, or unsuccessful, whether they triumph or not; let them do their duty, and rest satisfied. — Plato
Follow your dream as long as you live, do not lessen the time of following desire, for wasting time is an abomination of the spirit. — Plato
One man cannot practice many arts with success. — Plato
Plato Quotes About Knowledge
Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance. — Plato
Someday, in the distant future, our grand-children' s grand-children will develop a new equivalent of our classrooms. They will spend many hours in front of boxes with fires glowing within. May they have the wisdom to know the difference between light and knowledge. — Plato
Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge. — 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
I know not how I may seem to others, but to myself I am but a small child wandering upon the vast shores of knowledge, every now and then finding a small bright pebble to content myself with — Plato
The true lover of knowledge naturally strives for truth, and is not content with common opinion, but soars with undimmed and unwearied passion till he grasps the essential nature of things. — Plato
The essence of knowledge is self-knowledge. — Plato
Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind. — Plato
We obtain better knowledge of a person during one hour's play and games than by conversing with him for a whole year — Plato
There is far greater peril in buying knowledge than in buying meat and drink. — Plato
Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul — Plato
Man's music is seen as a means of restoring the soul, as well as confused and discordant bodily afflictions, to the harmonic proportions that it shares with the world soul of the cosmos. — Plato
Music is a defining element of character. — Plato
Education in music is most sovereign because more than anything else rhythm and harmony find their way to the innermost soul and take strongest hold upon it — Plato
Music is a more potent instrument than any other for education. — Plato
Let us describe the education of our men. What then is the education to be? Perhaps we could hardly find a better than that which the experience of the past has already discovered, which consists, I believe, in gymnastic, for the body, and music for the mind. — Plato
Philosophy is the highest music. — Plato
The music masters familiarize children's minds with rhythms and melodies, thus making them more civilized, more balanced, better adjusted in themselves, and more capable in whatever they say or do, for rhythm and harmony are essential to the whole of life. — Plato
Music is moral law. It is the essence of order and leads to all that is good, true and beautiful. — Plato
Plato Quotes About Justice
The worst form of injustice is pretended justice. — Plato
Justice means minding one's own business and not meddling with other men's concerns. — Plato
Perfect wisdom has four parts: Wisdom, the principle of doing things aright. Justice, the principle of doing things equally in public and private. Fortitude, the principle of not fleeing danger, but meeting it. Temperance, the principle of subduing desires and living moderately. — Plato
Do not expect justice where might is right. — Plato
By education I mean that training in excellence from youth upward which makes a man passionately desire to be a perfect citizen, and teaches him to rule, and to obey, with justice. This is the only education which deserves the name. — Plato
Justice in the life and conduct of the State is possible only as first it resides in the hearts and souls of the citizens. — Plato
Great is the issue at stake, greater than appears, whether a man is to be good or bad. And what will any one be profited if, under the influence of money or power, he neglect justice and virtue? — Plato
Of all the things of a man's soul which he has within him, justice is the greatest good and injustice the greatest evil. — Plato
...that in our state one man was to do one job, and the job he was naturally most suited for .. And further, we have often heard and often said that justice consists of minding your own business and not interfering with other people. — Plato
Then not only custom, but also nature affirms that to do is more disgraceful than to suffer injustice, and that justice is equality. — Plato
Plato Quotes About Soul
Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself. — Plato
Atheism is a disease of the soul before it becomes an error of understanding. — Plato
Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another. — Plato
False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil. — Plato
Thinking is the soul talking to itself. — Plato
The purpose of education is to give to the body and to the soul all the beauty and all the perfection of which they are capable. — Plato
A house that has a library in it has a soul. — Plato
Grant that I may become beautiful in my soul within, and that all my external possessions may be in harmony with my inner self. May I consider the wise to be rich, and may I have such riches as only a person of self-restraint can bear or endure. — Plato
Geometry will draw the soul toward truth and create the spirit of philosophy. — Plato
A dog has the soul of a philosopher. — Plato
Plato Quotes About Philosophical
Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. — Plato
The gods created certain kinds of beings to replenish our bodies... they are the trees and the plants and the seeds. — Plato
My good friend, you are a citizen of Athens, a city which is very great and very famous for its wisdom and power - are you not ashamed of caring so much for the making of money and for fame and prestige, when you neither think nor care about wisdom and truth and the improvement of your soul? — Plato
Wisest is he who knows what he does not know. — Plato
Wonder is the feeling of the philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder. — Plato
To be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile. — Plato
The whole life of the philosopher is a preparation for death. — Plato
...for the object of education is to teach us to love beauty. — Plato
Entire ignorance is not so terrible or extreme an evil, and is far from being the greatest of all. — Plato
So the nature required to make a really noble Guardian of our commonwealth will be swift and strong, spirited, and philosophic. — Plato
Plato Quotes About Ideas
For as there are misanthropists, or haters of men, there are also misologists, or haters of ideas, and both spring from the same cause, which is ignorance of the world. — Plato
In the world of knowledge, the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with effort. — Plato
Ideas are the source of all things — Plato
As there are misanthropists or haters of men, so also are there misologists, or haters of ideas. — Plato
Plato Quotes About State
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state? — Plato
Excess of liberty, whether it lies in state or individuals, seems only to pass into excess of slavery. — Plato
States are as the men, they grow out of human characters. — Plato
The god of love lives in a state of need. It is a need. It is an urge. It is a homeostatic imbalance. Like hunger and thirst, it's almost impossible to stamp out. — Plato
Either death is a state of nothingness and utter consciousness, or, as men say, there is a change and migration of the soul from this world to another. Now if death be of such a nature, I say that to die is to gain; for eternity is then only a single night. — Plato
Our object in the construction of the state is the greatest happiness of the whole, and not that of any one class. — Plato
Mathematics is like draughts in being suitable for the young, not too difficult, amusing, and without peril to the state. — Plato
Nothing can be more absurd than the practice that prevails in our country of men and women not following the same pursuits with all their strengths and with one mind, for thus, the state instead of being whole is reduced to half. — Plato
The God of Love lives in a state of need. — Plato
To the rulers of the state then, if to any, it belongs of right to use falsehood, to deceive either enemies or their own citizens, for the good of the state: and no one else may meddle with this privilege. — Plato
Plato Quotes About Evil
There should exist among the citizens neither extreme poverty nor again excessive wealth, for both are productive of great evil. — Plato
Ignorance of all things is an evil neither terrible nor excessive, nor yet the greatest of all; but great cleverness and much learning, if they be accompanied by a bad training, are a much greater misfortune. — Plato
The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. — Plato
Pleasure is the greatest incentive to evil. — Plato
There must always remain something that is antagonistic to good. — Plato
Knowledge becomes evil if the aim be not virtuous. — Plato
To prefer evil to good is not in human nature; and when a man is compelled to choose one of two evils, no one will choose the greater when he might have the less. — Plato
To escape from evil we must be made as far as possible like God; and the resemblance consists in becoming just and holy and wise. — Plato
The judge should not be young, he should have learned to know evil, not from his own soul, but from late and long observation of the nature of evil in others. — Plato
Know one knows whether death, which people fear to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good. — Plato
Plato Quotes About Education
Do not train children to learning by force and harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds. — Plato
No man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nature and education. — Plato
For good nurture and education implant good constitutions. — Plato
All learning is in the learner, not the teacher. — Plato
The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life. — Plato
The only real ill-doing is the deprivation of knowledge. — Plato
In order for man to succeed in life, God provided him with two means, education and physical activity. Not separately, one for the soul and the other for the body, but for the two together. With these means, man can attain perfection. — Plato
The most important part of education is right training in the nursery. The soul of the child in his play should be trained to that sort of excellence in which, when he grows to manhood, he will have to be perfected. — Plato
The most important part of education is proper training in the nursery. — Plato
A good education consists in knowing how to sing and dance well. — Plato
Plato Famous Quotes And Sayings
Love is a serious mental disease. — Plato
Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance. — Plato
Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself. — Plato
Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge. — Plato
Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. — Plato
Man is a being in search of meaning. — Plato
Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul — Plato
According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate parts, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves. — Plato
The greatest wealth is to live content with little. — Plato
Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being — Plato
Only the dead have seen the end of war. — Plato
Poverty doesn't come because of the decrease of wealth but because of the increase of desires. — Plato
There are three classes of men; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain. — Plato
A true artist is someone who gives birth to a new reality. — Plato
Welcome out of the cave, my friend. It's a bit colder out here, but the stars are just beautiful. — Plato
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle. — Plato
He is unworthy of the name of man who is ignorant of the fact that the diagonal of a square is incommensurable with its side. — Plato
To begin is the most important part of any quest and by far the most courageous. — Plato
The three wishes of every man: to be healthy, to be rich by honest means, and to be beautiful. — Plato
When the mind is thinking it is talking to itself. — Plato
The measure of a man is what he does with power. — Plato
Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable. — Plato
Money-makers are tiresome company, as they have no standard but cash value. — Plato
And isn't it a bad thing to be deceived about the truth, and a good thing to know what the truth is? For I assume that by knowing the truth you mean knowing things as they really are. — Plato
I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work. — Plato
Watch a man at play for an hour and you can learn more about him than in talking to him for a year. — Plato
The highest form of pure thought is in mathematics. — Plato
He who is only an athlete is too crude, too vulgar, too much a savage. He who is a scholar only is too soft, to effeminate. The ideal citizen is the scholar athlete, the man of thought and the man of action. — Plato
Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow... even if that someone is yourself! — Plato
Just as bees make honey from thyme, the strongest and driest of herbs, so do the wise profit from the most difficult of experiences. — Plato
Physical excellence does not of itself produce a good mind and character: on the other hand, excellence of mind and character will make the best of the physique it is given. — 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
It is better to be wise, and not to seem so, than to seem wise, and not be so; yet men, for the most part, desire the contrary. — Plato
All the gold which is under or upon the earth is not enough to give in exchange for virtue. — Plato
Better a little which is well done, than a great deal imperfectly. — Plato
There is nothing so delightful as the hearing, or the speaking of truth. For this reason, there is no conversation so agreeable as that of the man of integrity, who hears without any intention to betray, and speaks without any intention to deceive. — Plato
The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men. — Plato
Better to be unborn than untaught, for ignorance is the root of all misfortune. — Plato
Integrity is your destiny-it is the light that guides your way. — Plato
The beginning is the most important part of the work. — Plato
All learning has an emotional base. — Plato
The bees can abide no drones amongst them; but as soon as they begin to be idle, they kill them. — Plato
He who wishes to serve his country must have not only the power to think, but the will to act — Plato
As the builders say, the larger stones do not lie well without the lesser. — Plato
I know nothing more worthy of a man's ambition than that his son be the best of men. — Plato
Life Lessons by Plato
Plato taught that knowledge is power, and that the pursuit of knowledge should be a lifelong endeavor.
He believed that the purpose of life was to strive for wisdom and virtue, and that true happiness comes from living a life of harmony with the laws of nature.
He also emphasized the importance of living a life of moderation, in which one should practice self-control and strive for balance in all aspects of life.
Citation
Feel free to cite and use any of the quotes by Plato. For popular citation styles (APA, Chicago, MLA), go to citation page.
