Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
The poets are nothing but interpreters of the gods, each one possessed by the divinity to whom he is in bondage.
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.
The learning and knowledge that we have, is, at the most, but little compared with that of which we are ignorant.
Conversion is not implanting eyes, for they exist already; but giving them a right direction, which they have not
Our object in the construction of the state is the greatest happiness of the whole, and not that of any one class.
Lord of Lords, grant us the good whether we pray for it or not, but evil keep from us, even though we pray for it.
What a handsome face he had: but if he were naked you would forget he had a face, he is so beautiful in every way.
I do believe that there are gods, and in a far higher sense than that in which any of my accusers believe in them.
Man never legislates, but destinies and accidents, happening in all sorts of ways, legislate in all sorts of ways.
The penalty that good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by men worse than themselves.
Even in reaching for the beautiful there is beauty, and also in suffering whatever it is that one suffers en route.
Just as things in a picture, when viewed from a distance, appear to be all in one and the same condition and alike.
You ought not to heal the body without the soul, for this is the great error of our day in treating the human body.
No man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nature and education.
And the true order of going, or being led by another, to the things of love, is to begin from the beauties of earth.
The gods created certain kinds of beings to replenish our bodies... they are the trees and the plants and the seeds.
A state arises, as I conceive, out of the needs of mankind; no one is self-sufficing, but all of us have many wants.
Much sleep is not required by nature, either for our souls or bodies, or for the action in which they are concerned.
We obtain better knowledge of a person during one hour's play and games than by conversing with him for a whole year
The fear of death is indeed the pretence of wisdom, and not real wisdom, being the appearance of knowing the unknown.
I should not like to say ... that any kind of knowledge is not to be learned; for all knowledge appears to be a good.
The qualities which a man seeks in his beloved are those characteristics of his own soul, whether he knows it or not.
Mankind censure injustice fearing that they may be the victims of it, and not because they shrink from committing it.
No man's nature is able to know what is best for the social state of man; or, knowing, always able to do what is best.
Was not this ... what we spoke of as the great advantage of wisdom -- to know what is known and what is unknown to us?
If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools.
Before all it's necessary to look after the Soul, if you want the head and the rest of the body to function correctly.
The tyranny imposed on the soul by anger, or fear, or lust, or pain, or envy, or desire, I generally call 'injustice.'
A man who really fights for justice must lead a private, not a public, life if he is to survive for even a short time.
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.
You may be sure, dear Crito, that inaccurate language is not only in itself a mistake: it implants evil in men's souls.
May I deem the wise man rich, and may I have such a portion of gold as none but a prudent man can either bear or employ.
Lust is inseparably accompanied with the troubling of all order, with impudence, unseemliness, sloth, and dissoluteness.
Of all the things of a man's soul which he has within him, justice is the greatest good and injustice the greatest evil.
There are few people so stubborn in their atheism who, when danger is pressing in, will not acknowledge the divine power.
To go to the world below, having a soul which is like a vessel full of injustice, is the last and worst of all the evils.
I take it that our state, having been founded and built up on the right lines, is good in the complete sense of the word.
Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable, inasmuch as he has the fountain of reason in him not yet regulated.
Mathematics is like draughts in being suitable for the young, not too difficult, amusing, and without peril to the state.
If it is naturally in you to be a good orator, a notable orator you will be when you have acquired knowledge and practice.
Justice in the life and conduct of the State is possible only as first it resides in the hearts and souls of the citizens.
But tell me, this physician of whom you were just speaking, is he a moneymaker, an earner of fees, or a healer of the sick?
The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile.
There is in every one of us, even those who seem to be most moderate, a type of desire that is terrible, wild, and lawless.
Few men are so obstinate in their atheism, that a pressing danger will not compel them to acknowledgment of a divine power.
Perhaps there is a pattern set up in the heavens for one who desires to see it, and having seen it, to find one in himself.
The soul takes flight to the world that is invisible but there arriving she is sure of bliss and forever dwells in paradise.
To fear death, gentlemen, is no other then to think oneself wise when one is not, to think one knows what one does not know.
Wonder [said Socrates] is very much the affection of a philosopher; for there is no other beginning of philosophy than this.
He who is learning and learning and doesn't apply what he knows is like the one who is plowing and plowing and doesn't seed.