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Philosophy Quotes by Plato

92 Philosophy quotes by Plato

All Philosophy quotes Plato’s page

Plato tells his fellow Athenians that the unexamined life is not worth living. He says philosophers love unchanging truth more than fleeting sensations and that their study prepares them for death without fear. He also notes that true philosophy seeks a reality that never changes, higher than ordinary knowledge.

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Your dog is your only philosopher.

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Philosophy begins in wonder.

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A dog has the soul of a philosopher.

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God is a geometrician.

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Philosophy is the highest music.

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“Philosophy begins in wonder." -Plato”

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“Time is the moving image of eternity.”

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“let the speaker speak truly and the judge decide justly.”

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Geometry will draw the soul toward truth and create the spirit of philosophy.

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“As it is, the lover of inquiry must follow his beloved wherever it may lead him.”

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Wonder is the feeling of the philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.

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The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being.

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“He is divine -- but then I call all philosophers that.”

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“The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”

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Those whose hearts are fixed on Reality itself deserve the title of Philosophers.

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Those who practice philosophy in the right way are in training for dying and they fear death least of all men.

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“Of course, he said, he who is of a certain nature, is like those who are of a certain nature; he who…

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“the matter is as it is in all other cases: if it is naturally in you to be a good orator, a…

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“One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”

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For this feeling of wonder shows that you are a philosopher, since wonder is the only beginning of philosophy.

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States will never be happy until rulers become philosophers or philosophers become rulers.

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Only a philosopher's mind grows wings, since its memory always keeps it as close as possible to those realities by being close…

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“Since then, as philosophers prove, appearance tyrannizes over truth and is lord of happiness, to appearance I must devote myself.”

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“In practice people who study philosophy too long become very odd birds, not to say thoroughly vicious; while even those who are…

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The democratic youth lives along day by day, gratifying the desire that occurs to him, at one time drinking and listening to…

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“Socrates: This man, on one hand, believes that he knows something, while not knowing [anything]. On the other hand, I – equally…

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“repeating the commonplaces about atheism and materialism and sophistry, which are the stock-accusations against all philosophers when there is nothing else to…

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And tell him it's quite true that the best of the philosophers are of no use to their fellows; but that he…

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“We've heard many people say and have often said ourselves that justice is doing one's own work and not meddling with what…

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There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or…

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One should turn towards the main ocean of the-beautiful-in-the-world so that one may by, contemplation of this Form, bring forth in all…

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Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and political greatness…

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Vision, in my view, is the cause of the greatest benefit to us, inasmuch as none of the accounts now given concerning…

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“The society we have described can never grow into a reality or see the light of day, and there will be no…

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The true lover of learning then must his earliest youth, as far as in him lies, desire all truth… He whose desires…

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“Unless,” I said, “the philosophers rule as kings or those now called kings and chiefs genuinely and adequately philosophize, and political power…

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That makes me think, my friend, as I have often done before, how natural it is that those who have spent a…

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“... as a breath of wind or some echo rebounds from smooth, hard surfaces and returns to the source from which it…

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Until philosophers rule as kings or those who are now called kings and leading men genuinely and adequately philosophise, that is, until…

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The whole life of the philosopher is a preparation for death.

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More by Plato

Each man is capable of doing one thing well. If he attempts several, he will fail to achieve distinction in any.

You may be sure, dear Crito, that inaccurate language is not only in itself a mistake: it implants evil in men's souls.

“If men learn this, it will implant forgetfulness in their souls; they will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is…

Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.

I do not think it is permitted that a better man be harmed by a worse.

Any city, however small, is in fact divided into two, one the city of the poor, the other of the rich; these are at…

When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them.

“The love of man to woman is a thing common and of course, and at first partakes more of instinct and passion than of…

Strange times are these in which we live when old and young are taught in falsehood's school, and the one man that dares to…

“He was a wise man who invented God.”

For let me tell you, that the more the pleasures of the body fade away, the greater to me is the pleasure and charm…

“What shall we say about those spectators, then, who can see a plurality of beautiful things, but not beauty itself, and who are incapable…

Geometry existed before creation.

When men speak ill of thee, live so that nobody will believe them.

We must, if we are to be consistent, and if we re to have a real pedigree herd, mate the best of our men…