Plato was a Greek philosopher who lived between 427 B.C. and 347 B.C. and whose teachings reach us to this day. During his life, Plato wrote about a great many different subjects such as politics, ethics, psychology, metaphysics or cosmology.
Today’s philosophy would never have become what it is without the figure that Plato was. Thanks to him we were able to reach philosophical conclusions as before had not been given and thanks to his teachings the later philosophers, among others his disciple Aristotle, were able to take philosophy to the next level.
Phrases and teachings of Plato
That’s why we thought it imperative to make a list of Plato’s 80 best phrasesWe hope that you enjoy them as much as we have by selecting and rediscovering them!
Never discourage someone who progresses, no matter how slow they go.
No matter how fast you go on your way, the important thing is to advance in it, no doubt a good philosophy of life.
2. The greatest wealth is to live content with little.
He who needs little in order to be happy will always be happy, for he does not burden himself with the need for things which are really worthless.
3. The first and best victory is to conquer yourself.
The great battle we always fight is against ourselves, we are our own saboteurs.
4. Ideas are the origin of all things.
Everything comes from an original idea, without that idea you will never develop anything.
5. Courage is knowing what not to be afraid of.
Sometimes we have certain fears in life that are unfounded, and once we face them we discover that we shouldn’t have that fear.
6. Knowledge is the food of the soul.
People grow as individuals largely because of the knowledge we absorb throughout our lives.
7. Each heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers to it. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.
A great way to show our love is with music and poetry, in ancient Greece they already showed the love they processed for something or someone in this way.
8. A house that has a library, has a soul.
Undoubtedly a great phrase that indicates the importance that reading already had in society in Plato’s time. Surely, finding a library in a house at that time was also a sign that it was a respectable person’s house.
9. The wise speak because they have something to say; the foolish because they have something to say.
Speaking if you don’t have something important and meditated for saying only serves us to show our ignorance to others.
10. A dog has the soul of a philosopher.
The lifestyle adopted by many dogs is calm and meditative, very similar to what a philosopher could adopt if we stick to the topic.
11. The price that good men pay for indifference to public affairs is that of being ruled by bad men.
He who is corrupt always longs for power, and often achieves relevant positions in society.
12. Excellence is not a gift, but a skill that requires practice. We do not act rightly because we are excellent, in fact, we achieve excellence by acting rightly.
Achieving excellence in any field requires practice and experience, only with the passage of time and those two things are achieved to reach it.
13. The goal of education is to teach us to love the beautiful.
What is education if it does not teach us to value the good and relevant things in life and therefore fight for them?
14. False words are not only bad in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.
Lying is something that a human being doesn’t really need, but he uses it to manipulate the people around him.
15. Love is a serious desire of the mind.
When we love something, our mind keeps reminding us how much we need it.
16. Good people do not need laws to tell them that they must act responsibly, while bad people will find a way to break the laws.
Being an honest and thorough person it is not necessary for us to have laws to differentiate between what is right and what is wrong, but if we are on the contrary corrupt and evildoers we will seek the way with which to evade any law.
17. I’ve hardly met a mathematician who can reason.
Plato tells us here how two different types of sages at that time were not able to understand each other.
18. Either we find what we’re looking for, or at least we free ourselves from the persuasion that we know what we don’t know.
The search for truth is always positive, even if we do not reach an absolute truth.
19. He who invented God was a wise man.
No doubt, in order to have created religion and the concept of God, the one who had that idea had to be someone very ahead of his time.
20. If women are expected to do any work like men, we must teach them the same things.
Education for men and women has to be the same regardless of gender.
21. Bodily exercise, when obligatory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge acquired by obligation finds no sustenance in mind.
He who does not want to learn will never learn, because thoughts can change, appear and disappear from one day to the next.
22. Good deeds give strength to ourselves and inspire the good deeds of others.
Doing good is something that is positive for society as a whole, the good performance that you may have today, maybe tomorrow someone will give it to you.
23. Those who tell the story rule society.
The victor and the powerful is the one who writes history, the rest we are only dust in the passing of time.
24. Human behavior is derived from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.
These three things lead us in our lives to do all our actions, to know what we want, what we want and what we need.
25. Thou art my star, and my astronomer also; and I desire that I should be heaven, with a thousand million eyes to behold thee!
A very nice dedication that we would all like someone to tell us.
26. There are three kinds of men: the lovers of wisdom, the lovers of honor, and the lovers of gain.
The wise, the military and the merchant. There are also those who are all three at once or a combination of them.
27. Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, much less believed by the masses.
Many people are not able to see the intricacies of society and when you try to make them see you simply don’t believe them.
28. There are two things a person should never be angry about: what can help, and what cannot.
What can help us is positive and what is not, simply does not commit us.
29. Books are immortal children who defy their parents.
The writer always seeks to outdo himself, and when he writes a great book his greatest challenge is to outdo the previous one he wrote.
30. Of all the animals, the child is the most difficult to handle.
Knowing how to raise a child is one of the greatest responsibilities of our lives.
31. You should not honor man more than the truth.
The truth is what is really important, not the person who claims to represent, and you have to know how to differentiate when that person owns it or not.
32. Musical innovation is full of dangers for the state, because when the modes of music change, the fundamental laws of the state always change with them.
Plato talks about how music influences people’s moods and how music can also be an indicator of change in society.
33. Time is the living image of reality.
Time is the basis of everything around us, there is always a beginning and an end of all things, everything has its own time.
34. Writing is the geometry of the soul.
With writing we can grow as people since it puts us in contact with our thoughts, when we write we always listen to our inner voice.
35. I would like to teach children music, physics and philosophy; but more importantly, music, because music patterns and all the arts are the keys to learning.
With the use of music we can teach others many things because this is a much more didactic and entertaining way to learn something.
36. Any man can easily do harm, but not all men can do good to others.
The one who does good to others is much more valuable than the one who does evil and can therefore be much more misunderstood in society.
37. Man is a being in search of meaning.
All men seek a goal in life or a vocation, we all want to give meaning to our life, a meaning.
38. The direction in which a man’s education begins will determine his future life.
The way we are educated conditions the rest of our lives, because at an early stage of it we are much more influenceable.
39. He who loves does not go on paths in darkness.
Loving someone kindles a flame inside of us. There is no dark path that we do not go through for our loved one.
40. Beauty of style, harmony, grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity.
The simplest things tend to be the best and bringing that simplicity to all-inclusive art tends to yield very good results.
41. Knowledge becomes bad if the objective is not virtuous.
Knowledge should not be used to do evil, for this knowledge is used to destroy, not to build, which is the basis for man’s thirst for knowledge.
42. To grow old has a great feeling of calm and freedom when passions are relaxed, so as Socrates says: we are free from understanding and not only from one crazy master, but from many.
When we get old is when we reach our maximum wisdom, and thanks to it we see who throughout our life was right with his words and who was not.
43. Too much debauchery seems to become nothing more than a lot of slavery.
Libertiness can lead us to be slaves of our own vices, work dignifies people.
44. If our citizens are well educated and become judicious men, they will easily see their way through all this.
Education is the basis on which any society should be initiated. Non-education and ignorance lead us to perform acts that are often counterproductive for us.
45. Twice and three more times as they suggest, it is appropriate to review and repeat what is right.
When we are not completely sure of something, we should go over it as many times as necessary.
46. Arguments derived from probabilities are inactive.
No probability in anything is one hundred percent, and therefore there is always a probability of error.
47. You should not suppose that it is true that stones are sacred and pieces of wood, birds, snakes, and human beings are not. Of all those things, the most sacred is a good human being and the most polluted is an evil one.
The human being is capable of all the best and all the worst of this world, because evil is a quality that only occurs in the human being.
48. Humiliation is the first step to knowledge, even when we refer to the most common things.
Knowledge always begins in people of a previous ignorance and the need we have to fill that void.
49. The love of the noblest, although people are less beautiful than others, is especially honorable.
Love does not reside in beauty but in a pure feeling that occurs between two people.
50. The definition of the good is reduced by successive interrogations and the virtue is consolidated by being identical to the knowledge that is generated.
Suggestive phrase that speaks to us of the ignorance in the people and the duty to finish with him to become judgmental.
51. The God of love lives from a need, like hunger and thirst, it is almost impossible to eradicate.
We all need to be loved in our life, it is a need that we have without knowing why.
52. Naive loves are considered more honorable than hidden ones.
Love is always love in all its facets, whether good or bad seen by society two people who love each other are always equally honorable.
53. The essence of the unbeautiful must separate and oppose a certain type of existence that is called beautiful.
The search for beauty is something that man has always sought to represent through art.
54. Love is especially concerned for the good and is perfected with the company of reserve and justice, whether between gods or men.
Love improves us as a society and helps us to understand each other and reach consensus among ourselves.
55. Justice is nothing but the convenience of the strongest.
Justice is always carried out by those who can impose it on others, so justice seeks equality between people.
56. All learning is found in the disciple, not in the master.
It is always the student who must learn, and it is he who must do his part.
57. Integrity is the light that guides your path.
Integrity and honesty lead us on the path of good throughout our lives.
58. You have not discovered a recipe for memory, but as a reminder.
People often use certain techniques in order not to forget something, such as as associating it with something that reminds us.
59. The vulgo is attached to life, because the only thing he cares for is the body and the pleasures of the senses, forgetting that he has a soul, and so death terrifies him, because when the body is destroyed, he is deprived of what he most wants.
In ancient Greece, many people were conditioned by their class or social stratum, which differentiated them from each other. The powerful was the one who could dedicate himself to a more spiritual life and personal growth, the poor had no access to that kind of life.
60. Above all the things that hurt our senses in this world, there are purely intelligible beings, who are the perfect, absolute, eternal, immutable types of all that is imperfect in this world.
There is no greater defect than not accepting our own defects, because therefore we will never solve them.
61. Let us retrace our steps to regain the foundation of reason.
Looking back can help us as a society to see where we have made a mistake or where we have strayed from the pursuit of the common good.
62. The man who does everything that leads to happiness depends on himself, and not on other men; he has adopted the best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation, the man of virile character and wisdom.
The pursuit of happiness leads us to be better people with ourselves and for others, that makes us be seen by others as successful.
63. In practice, people who study philosophy for too long become very rare, if not totally vicious, bugs, while even those who are the best end up reduced to completing their uselessness as members of society.
Philosophers in ancient Greece were people who led a contemplative and idle life, which could lead to vices and illness.
64. In politics we assume that anyone who knows how to get votes knows how to run a city or a state. When we’re sick we don’t ask for the handsomest, most eloquent doctor.
Plato spoke here of the need for a technocratic government, to run a country or a city you have to be a good manager and have proven your worth for it.
65. The soul carries nothing with it to the other world but its education and culture. At the beginning of the journey to the other world, education and culture can provide the greatest help, or on the contrary, they can act as the greatest burden on the person who has just died.
All material things will not come with us after our death, but those of us who are as persons will.
66. It is necessary to expel the demons from the lie.
The lie would not be necessary in an ideal society and therefore in the search for this we must get rid of that ballast that is falsehood.
67. To know is nothing more than to remember, and remembrance presupposes a previous knowledge; therefore, if the soul remembers things that it has not been able to know in this life, it is proof that it has existed before.
Plato offers us this theory about reincarnation, why do we sometimes remember things or places where we have never been?
68. The consequence of everything is that the soul exists before our appearance in this world and so do the essences.
The existence of the soul has always been the search for something intangible something that is not seen, but that we all know is there.
69. When an income tax has to be paid, the honest man will pay more and the unjust less in the same amount of income.
There have always been those who have tried to evade their duties with the hacienda, even in ancient Greece.
70. Educators must reflect on the simplest and most effective methods for changing the way of thinking.
The search for a better and more effective education has always been the subject of debate by pedagogues of all ages.
71. The greatest incentive for evil is pleasure.
Personal pleasure is something that can lead us to do evil in our lives, it is a high price for a pleasant moment.
72. Even the gods love jokes.
Humour has always been present in all periods of history and this has been represented by mythology.
73. Love is the source of all our happiness and harmony.
Love is something that helps foster good relationships between people, it is also creator of harmony where it abounds.
74. In many cases, the right question is often more important than the right answer.
A correct answer is always due to a well formulated question, if this has not been we will never get a correct answer.
75. There is simple ignorance, which is the source of the lightest offenses, and there is also double ignorance, which is accompanied by a presumption of wisdom. Whoever is under the influence of the latter, imagines that he knows everything when in reality he knows nothing.
Ignorant people tend to think themselves wiser than they really are, because their own ignorance does not let them see beyond.
76. Actions are modified according to the form of their performance.
How you perform an action can make this something very different, because the importance of something is not only in doing it, but also in how to do it.
77. Those who govern the state should be the only people to have the privilege of lying. Whether at home or abroad, they can be allowed to lie for the good of the state.
Lying in politics has always been widespread.
78. Injustice is often censured by blind people who are afraid of suffering and not precisely because of their fear of committing injustice.
Not wanting to see injustices prevents us from confronting them directly, and therefore we are not able to tackle them at their root.
79. Man never legislates, but destinies and accidents that happen in all kinds of ways legislate in all kinds of ways.
Even if you don’t legislate on something, the happening of events makes you create precedents with which you will later legislate.
80. The eyes of the soul of the multitudes are unable to bear the vision of the divine.
People believe what we want to believe, even if we are seeing that what we believe in is not true.