Hailing from an aristocratic Athenian family, Plato was a brilliant mind who excelled in both philosophy and mathematics. He liked to think a lot about things like life, what’s real, and how people should behave. He learned a lot from his teacher, Socrates, who was also a very famous philosopher.
Plato thought so much about Socrates that he wrote books about him. He wanted everyone to know how amazing Socrates was. Later, Plato started a special school called The Academy. It was like a big thinking place where thoughtful people could learn and talk about ideas.
Plato, one of the most influential philosophers in Western history, has provided a wealth of wisdom through his dialogues and teachings. Here are 50 inspirational and famous quotes attributed to him:
Quotes by Plato:
- “The greatest wealth is to live content with little.”
- “Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.”
- “The beginning is the most important part of the work.”
- “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.”
- “Courage is knowing what not to fear.”
- “Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil.”
- “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”
- “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”
- “Justice means minding your own business and not meddling with other men’s concerns.”
- “The measure of a man is what he does with power.”
- “Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.”
- “A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.”
- “The soul takes nothing with her to the next world but her education and her culture.”
- “Those who tell the stories also rule society.”
- “Love is a serious mental disease.”
- “The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself.”
- “Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back.”
- “Necessity is the mother of invention.”
- “A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.”
- “To find yourself, think for 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.”
- “The first and best victory is to conquer self.”
- “I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”
- “There is truth in wine and children.”
- “You should not honor men more than truth.”
- “Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.”
- “The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”
- “A just person is one who is rightly guided by truth and reason.”
- “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
- “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”
- “Only the dead have seen the end of war.”
- “The greatest wealth is to live content with little.”
- “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
- “The soul of man is immortal and imperishable.”
- “The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.”
- “A friend is a second self.”
- “He who commits injustice is ever made more wretched than he who suffers it.”
- “Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.”
- “You learn more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”
- “He who is not a good follower cannot be a good leader.”
- “The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life.”
- “In any work of art, the noblest part is the effort and intention of the artist.”
- “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
- “One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”
- “Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.”
- “The good is the beautiful; the beautiful is the good.”
- “The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.”
- “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”
- “Knowledge is the food of the soul.”
- “To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.”
