Quotes from Plato

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

those who make philosophy the business of their lives, generally turn out rogues if they are bad men, and fools if they are good.

And so, from such early times human beings have had Love for one another inborn in them -- Love, reassembler of our ancient nature, who tries to make one out of two and to heal human nature.

They will begin by sending out into the country all the inhabitants of the city who are more than ten years old, and will take possession of their children, who will be unaffected by the habits of their parents; these they will train in their own habits and laws, I mean in the laws which we have given them: and in this way the State and constitution of which we were speaking will soonest and most easily attain happiness, and the nation which has such a constitution will gain most. Yes

Can I by justice or by crooked ways of deceit ascend a loftier tower which may he a fortress to me all my days? For what men say is that, if I am really just and am not also thought just profit there is none, but the pain and loss on the other hand are unmistakable. But if, though unjust, I acquire the reputation of justice, a heavenly life is promised to me. Since then, as philosophers prove, appearance tyrannizes over truth and is lord of happiness, to appearance I must devote myself.

Un buen consejo viene de la ciencia y no de las riquezas.

But when I hear other kinds of discussion, especially the talk of rich businessmen like you, I get bored and feel sorry for you and your friends, because you think you're doing something important, when you're not. Perhaps you regard me as a failure, and I think you're right. But I don't THINK you're a failure, I KNOW you are.

For the one (what is dear to the gods) is of the sort to be loved because it is loved; the other (the holy), because it is of the sort to be loved, therefore is loved.

Thinking is the talking of the soul with itself.

Cookery simulates the disguise of medicine, and pretends to know what food is the best for the body; and if the physician and the cook had to enter into a competition in which children were the judges, or men who had no more sense than children, as to which of them best understands the goodness or badness of food, the physician would be starved to death.

Yes, my good Sir, and there will be no better in which to look for a government. Why? Because of the liberty which reigns there—they have a complete assortment of constitutions; and he who has a mind to establish a State, as we have been doing, must go to a democracy as he would to a bazaar at which they sell them, and pick out the one that suits him; then, when he has made his choice, he may found his State. He will be sure to have patterns enough. And

When two friends, like you and me, are in the mood to chat, we have to go about it in a gentler and more dialectical way. By 'more dialectical,' I mean not only that we give real responses, but that we base our responses solely on what the interlocutor admits that he himself knows.

Pues bien -continué-, no debemos buscar el juez bueno y sabio en esa persona, sino en la anteriormente descrita. Pues la maldad jamás podrá conocerse al mis­mo tiempo a sí misma y a la virtud, y, en cambio, la vir­tud innata llegará, con los años y auxiliada por la educa­ción, a adquirir un conocimiento simultáneo de sí misma y de la maldad. En mi opinión será, pues, sabio el hombre virtuoso, pero no el malo.

Friends possess everything in common.

That in any city, and particularly in the city of Athens, it is easier to do men harm than to do them good;

And so at last, instead of loving contention and glory, men become lovers of trade and money; they honour and look up to the rich man, and make a ruler of him, and dishonour the poor man. They

to suffer is better than to do evil;' and the art of rhetoric is described as only useful for the purpose of self-accusation.

Many animals, I replied, furnish examples of them; our friend the dog is a very good one: you know that well-bred dogs are perfectly gentle to their familiars and acquaintances, and the reverse to strangers. Yes, I know. Then there is nothing impossible or out of the order of nature in our finding a guardian who has a similar combination of qualities? Certainly

Isn't there still one other possibility ... ," I said, "our persuading you that you must let us go?

They are always either the masters or servants and never the friends of anybody; the tyrant never tastes of true freedom or friendship.

No tendrás, pues, que establecer en la ciudad, junto con esa judicatura, un cuerpo médico de individuos como aquellos de que hablábamos, que cuiden de tus ciudadanos que tengan bien constituidos cuerpo y alma, pero, en cuanto a los demás, dejen morir a aquellos cuya deficiencia radique en sus cuerpos o condenen a muerte ellos mismos a los que tengan un alma naturalmente mala e incorregible?

So let the unjust make his unjust attempts in the right way, and lie hidden if he means to be great in his injustice: (he who is found out is nobody:) for the highest reach of injustice is, to be deemed just when you are not. Therefore I say that in the perfectly unjust man we must assume the most perfect injustice; there is to be no deduction, but we must allow him, while doing the most unjust acts, to have acquired the greatest reputation for justice.

A los amantes les llega el arrepentimiento del bien que hayan podido hacer, tan pronto como se les aplaca su deseo.

Courage, for example, when not based on forethought, is mere recklessness; when a man is thoughtlessly confident, he gets hurt; but when he is mindful of what he does, things go well.