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Ifs Quotes by Plato

69 Ifs quotes by Plato

All Ifs quotes Plato’s page

Plato’s “Ifs” gathers a sizable collection of 69 passages where the ancient thinker probes the power of conditional statements. Expect a blend of Socratic dialogue and metaphysical speculation that shows how early philosophy already wrestled with “what‑if” scenarios.

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If there is no contradictory impression, there is nothing to awaken reflection

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Don't quarrel with your parents even if you are on the right.

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Train children not by compulsion but as if they were playing.

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If a man be endowed with a generous mind, this is the best kind of nobility.

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You can't do good if you don't feel good.

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I shall never alter my ways, not even if I have to die many times.

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If the head and the body are to be well, you must begin by curing the soul.

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If you are wise, all men will be your friends and kindred, for you will be useful.

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If you ask: What is the good of education? The answer is easy: Education makes good men and good men act nobly.

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If one has made a mistake, and fails to correct it, one has made a greater mistake.

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And if we are good, we are beneficent: for all good things are beneficial. Are they not?

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If you are willing to reflect on the courage and moderation of other people, you will find them strange.

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Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow... even if that someone is yourself!

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What a handsome face he had: but if he were naked you would forget he had a face, he is so beautiful…

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No one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all blessings for a man, yet men fear it as if…

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But he who has been earnest in the love of knowledge and of true wisdom, and has exercised his intellect more than…

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For though a man should be a complete unbeliever in the being of gods; if he also has a native uprightness of…

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Either death is a state of nothingness and utter consciousness, or, as men say, there is a change and migration of the…

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Again, truth should be highly valued; if, as we were saying, a lie is useless to the gods, and useful only as…

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If someone separated the art of counting and measuring and weighing from all the other arts, what was left of each (of…

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“If anyone comes to the gates of poetry and expects to become an adequate poet by acquiring expert knowledge of the subject…

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We will be better and braver if we engage and inquire than if we indulge in the idle fancy that we already…

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If in a discussion of many matters ... we are not able to give perfectly exact and self-consistent accounts, do not be…

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For neither does wealth bring honour to the owner, if he be a coward; of such a one the wealth belongs to…

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If the study of all these sciences which we have enumerated, should ever bring us to their mutual association and relationship, and…

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In particular I may mention Sophocles the poet, who was once asked in my presence, How do you feel about love, Sophocles?…

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If one sins against the laws of proportion and gives something too big to something too small to carry it - too…

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Do you, like a skilful weigher, put into the balance the pleasures and the pains, near and distant, and weigh them, and…

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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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And all knowledge, when separated from justice and virtue, is seen to be cunning and not wisdom; wherefore make this your first…

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Each living creature is said to be alive and to be the same individual - as for example someone is said to…

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If it is naturally in you to be a good orator, a notable orator you will be when you have acquired knowledge…

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Before all it's necessary to look after the Soul, if you want the head and the rest of the body to function…

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Seek truth while you are young, for if you do not, it will later escape your grasp

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If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule…

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

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Worthy of honor is he who does no injustice, and more than twofold honor, if he not only does no injustice himself,…

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No one knows whether death is really the greatest blessing a man can have, but they fear it is the greatest curse,…

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More will be accomplished, and better, and with more ease, if every man does what he is best fitted to do, and…

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If we are ever to have pure knowledge of anything, we must get rid of the body and contemplate things by themselves…

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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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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…

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“He was a wise man who invented God.”

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

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

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