Plato quotes
Student of Socrates, teacher of Aristotle, founder of the Academy. His dialogues — the Republic, Symposium, Phaedo — set the terms of Western metaphysics.
28 passages across 14 themes. More on Plato.
On love
“At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.”
“Neither family, nor privilege, nor wealth, nor anything but Love can light that beacon which a man must steer by when he sets out to live the better life.”
“For once touched by love, everyone becomes a poet”
“Then we may begin by assuming that there are three classes of men—lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, lovers of gain?”
“My love, Alcibiades, which I hardly like to confess, would long ago have passed away, as I flatter myself, if I saw you loving your good things, or thinking that you ought to pass life in the enjoyment of them.”
On wisdom
“Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.”
“Parmenides: It is impossible to conceive of many without one.”
“Parmenides: Just as things in a picture, when viewed from a distance, appear to be all in one and the same condition and alike.”
“The beginning in every task is the chief thing.”
“Socrates: The shoemaker, for example, uses a square tool, and a circular tool, and other tools for cutting?”
On action
“Necessity is the mother of invention.”
“The orators — and the despots — have the least power in their cities … since they do nothing that they wish to do, practically speaking, though they do whatever they think to be best.”
“Socrates: But suppose the words used are ‘just’ and ‘good’. Don’t we then go each his own way, and find ourselves in disagreement with ourselves as well as with each other? / Phaedrus: Undoubtedly.”
“There is no one who ever acts honestly in the administration of states, nor any helper who will save any one who maintains the cause of the just.”
On presence
“Perception and knowledge could never be the same.”
“No multitude is able to acquire any art whatsoever. Then if there is a kingly art, neither the collective body of the wealthy nor the whole people could ever acquire this science of statesmanship.”
“You want to know whether I can make a long speech, such as you are in the habit of hearing; but that is not my way.”
On fear
“No man of sense can put himself and his soul under the control of names... You must consider courageously and thoroughly and not accept anything carelessly.”
“No one should be discouraged, Theaetetus, who can make constant progress, even though it be slow.”
On kindness
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”
On self-mastery
“The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself.”
On beauty
“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination.”
On courage
“Courage is knowing what not to fear.”
On solitude
“I shall assume that your silence gives consent.”
On wonder
“Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.”
On truth
“Zeno: The many do not know that except by this devious passage through all things the mind cannot attain to the truth.”
On wholeness
“It would be better for me … that multitudes of men should disagree with me rather than that I, being one, should be out of harmony with myself.”
On anger
“The wisdom which knows what are and are not dangers is opposed to the ignorance of them”