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The like is not the friend of the like in as far as he is like; still the good may be the friend of the good in as far as he is good.
Only a philosopher's mind grows wings, since its memory always keeps it as close as possible to those realities by being close to which the gods are divine. A man who uses reminders of these things correctly is always at the highest, most perfect level of initiation, and he is the only one who is perfect as perfect can be. He stands outside human concerns and draws close to the divine; ordinary people think he is disturbed and rebuke him for this, unaware that he is possessed by god.
You ought not to attempt to cure the eyes without the head, or the head without the eyes, so neither ought you to attempt to cure the body without the soul.
Wealth is the parent of luxury and indolence, and poverty of meanness and viciousness, and both of discontent.
And the true order of going, or being led by another, to the things of love, is to begin from the beauties of earth and mount upwards for the sake of that other beauty, using these steps only, and from one going on to two, and from two to all fair forms to fair practices, and from fair practices to fair notions, until from fair notions he arrives at the notion of absolute beauty, and at last knows what the essence of beauty is.
Of necessity, the most like are most full of envy, strife, and hatred of one another, and the most unlike of friendship. For the poor man is compelled to be the friend of the rich, and the weak requires the aid of the strong, and the sick man of the physician; every one who knows not has to love and court him who knows.
If women are expected to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things.
The madness of love is the greatest of heaven's blessings.
I have hardly ever known a mathematician who was capable of reasoning.
Either never, or very seldom, do the quiet actions in life appear to be better than the quick and energetic ones.
Some have courage in pleasures, and some in pains; some in desires, and some in fears; and some are cowards under the same conditions.
Beauty is certainly a soft, smooth, slippery thing, and therefore of a nature which easily slips in and permeates our souls.
There is far greater peril in buying knowledge than in buying meat and drink: the one you purchase of the wholesale or retail dealer, and carry them away in other vessels, and before you receive them into the body as food, you may deposit them at home and call in any experienced friend who knows what is good to be eaten or drunken, and what not, and how much, and when; and hence the danger of purchasing them is not so great. But when you buy the wares of knowledge you cannot carry them away in another vessel; they have been sold to you, and you must take them into the soul and go your way, either greatly harmed or greatly benefited by the lesson.
For every man who has learned to fight in arms will desire to learn the proper arrangement of an army, which is the sequel of the lesson.
When I hear a man discoursing of virtue, or of any sort of wisdom, who is a true man and worthy of his theme, I am delighted beyond measure: and I compare the man and his words, and note the harmony and correspondence of them. And such an one I deem to be the true musician, having in himself a fairer harmony than that of the lyre.
When anything is in the presence of evil, but is not as yet evil, the presence of good arouses the desire of good in that thing; but the presence of evil, which makes a thing evil, takes away the desire and friendship of the good; for that which was once both good and evil has now become evil only, and the good has no friendship with evil.
I should not like to say ... that any kind of knowledge is not to be learned; for all knowledge appears to be a good.
I am not given to finding fault, for there are innumerable fools.
Wisdom always makes men fortunate: for by wisdom no man could ever err, and therefore he must act rightly and succeed, or his wisdom would be wisdom no longer.
No one punishes the evil-doer under the notion, or for the reason, that he has done wrong -- only the unreasonable fury of a beast acts in that way. But he who desires to inflict rational punishment does not retaliate for a past wrong, for that which is done cannot be undone, but he has regard to the future, and is desirous that the man who is punished, and he who sees him punished, may be deterred from doing wrong again.
Those who have knowledge are more confident than those who have no knowledge, and they are more confident after they have learned than before.
The wrong use of a thing is far worse than the non-use.
All who do evil and dishonorable things do them against their will.
Do you, like a skilful weigher, put into the balance the pleasures and the pains, near and distant, and weigh them, and then say which outweighs the other? If you weigh pleasures against pleasures, you of course take the more and greater; or if you weigh pains against pains, then you choose that course of action in which the painful is exceeded by the pleasant, whether the distant by the near or the near by the distant; and you avoid that course of action in which the pleasant is exceeded by the painful.
The natural function of the wing is to soar upwards and carry that which is heavy up to the place where dwells the race of gods. More than any other thing that pertains to the body it partakes of the nature of the divine.
Excess of liberty, whether it lies in state or individuals, seems only to pass into excess of slavery.
The prison of lust is just that very one of which the soul shuts the doors upon herself; for each act of indulgence is the shooting of a fresh bolt.
Lust is inseparably accompanied with the troubling of all order, with impudence, unseemliness, sloth, and dissoluteness.
PLATO, attributed, Day's Collacon
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.
PLATO, attributed, Remarks of Famous People
Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity--I mean the true simplicity of a rightly and nobly ordered mind and character, not that other simplicity which is only a euphemism for folly.
PLATO, The Republic
He seemeth to be most ignorant that trusteth most to his wit.
PLATO, attributed, Day's Collacon
A work well begun is half ended.
PLATO, attributed, Day's Collacon
Are you not ashamed that you give your attention to acquiring as much money as possible, and similarly with reputation and honor, and give no attention or thought to truth and understanding and the perfection of your soul?
PLATO, Apology
If a man perfectly righteous should come upon earth, he would find so much opposition that he would be imprisoned, reviled, scourged, and in fine crucified by such, who, though they were extremely wicked, would yet pass for righteous men.
PLATO, Plato's Divine Dialogues
To a man full of questions make no answer at all.
PLATO, attributed, Day's Collacon
Passionate persons are like men who stand upon their head; they see all things the wrong way.
PLATO, attributed, Day's Collacon
Have you ever sensed that our soul is immortal and never dies?
PLATO, The Republic
Perhaps there is a pattern set up in the heavens for one who desires to see it and seeing it, to found one in himself. But whether it exists anywhere or ever exists is no matter; for this is the only commonwealth in whose politics he can ever take part.
PLATO, Republic
Opinion is a medium between knowledge and ignorance.
PLATO, attributed, Day's Collacon
Kings are never without flatterers to seduce them, ambition to deprive them, and desires to corrupt them.
PLATO, attributed, Day's Collacon
And of course, if we agree upon this -- that every immortal thing is incorruptible; it will then follow, not only that the soul is immortal, but that it is incorruptible; and if we cannot agree upon that, we must look out for another proof.
PLATO, Phaedon: or, a Dialogue of the Immortality of the Soul
I would be better for me ... that multitudes of men should disagree with me rather than that I, being one, should be out of harmony with myself.
PLATO,Gorgias
The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself.
PLATO,The Republic
Honor is a divine good.
PLATO, attributed, Day's Collacon
He that lendeth to another in time of prosperity, shall never want help himself in the time of adversity.
PLATO, attributed, Day's Collacon
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