Plato is considered one of the most influential philosophers in history. His ideas about wisdom, knowledge, justice, and human nature continue to inspire people around the world centuries after they were written.
In this collection of Plato quotes, you’ll find thought-provoking sayings that encourage reflection, learning, and personal growth. Whether you’re looking for inspiration, motivation, or a deeper understanding of life, these timeless quotes offer valuable lessons that remain relevant today.
75 Famous Plato Quotes About Wisdom, Life and Knowledge
1. “Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.”
2. “Writing is the geometry of the soul.”
3. “I would teach children music, physics, and philosophy; but most importantly music, for the patterns in music and all the arts are the keys to learning”
4. “An empty vessel makes the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers.”
4. “An empty vessel makes the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers.”
5. “Death is not the worst that can happen to men.”
6. “Love is the name for our pursuit of wholeness, for our desire to be complete.”“A hero is born among a hundred, a wise man is found among a thousand, but an accomplished one might not be found even among a hundred thousand men.
7. “Poets utter great and wise things which they do not themselves understand.”
8. “Any man may easily do harm, but not every man can do good to another.”
8. “Any man may easily do harm, but not every man can do good to another.”
9. “The first and best victory is to conquer self.”
10. “Love is the pursuit of the whole.”
11. “True friendship can exist only between equals.”
12. “How could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads?”
13. “At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.”
14. “Have you ever sensed that our soul is immortal and never dies?”
15. “For this feeling of wonder shows that you are a philosopher, since wonder is the only beginning of philosophy.”
16. “Character is simply habit long continued.”
17. “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder”
18. “Man is a being in search of meaning.”
19. “Books are immortal sons defying their sires.”
20. “Either we shall find what it is we are seeking or at least we shall free ourselves from the persuasion that we know what we do not know.”
21. “The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”
22. “No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.”
23. “Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion has no hold on the mind. Therefore do not use compulsion, but let early education be a sort of amusement; you will then be better able to discover the child’s natural bent.”
24. “No wealth can ever make a bad man at peace with himself
25. “The soul takes flight to the world that is invisible but there arriving she is sure of bliss and forever dwells in paradise.”
26. “No man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nature and education.”
26. “No man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nature and education.”
27. “You’re my star, a stargazer too, and I wish that I were heaven, with a billion eyes to look at you.”
28. “A dog has the soul of a philosopher.”
29. “In practice people who study philosophy too long become very odd birds, not to say thoroughly vicious; while even those who are the best of them are reduced by…[philosophy] to complete uselessness as members of society.”
30. “He was a wise man who invented God.”
31. “Musical innovation is full of danger to the State, for when modes of music change, the fundamental laws of the State always change with them.”
32. “Excess of liberty, whether it lies in state or individuals, seems only to pass into excess of slavery.”
33. “All is flux, nothing stays still”
34. “Knowledge is the food of the soul.”
35. “Money-makers are tiresome company, as they have no standard but cash value.”
36. “Everything that deceives may be said to enchant.”
37. “Ideas are the source of all things”
38. “The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life”
39. “Come then, and let us pass a leisure hour in storytelling, and our story shall be the education of our heroes.”
40. “Those who don’t know must learn from those who do.”
41. “At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet”
42. “Wise men talk because they have something to say; Fools, because they have to say something.”
43. “Man…is a tame or civilized animal; never the less, he requires proper instruction and a fortunate nature, and then of all animals he becomes the most divine and most civilized; but if he be insufficiently or ill- educated he is the most savage of earthly creatures.”
44. “the unexamined life is not worth living”
45. “Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable.”
46. “All I really know is the extent of my own ignorance”
47. “Love is born into every human being; it calls back the halves of our original nature together; it tries to make one out of two and heal the wound of human nature.”
48. “I thought to myself: I am wiser than this man; neither of us probably knows anything that is really good, but he thinks he has knowledge, when he has not, while I, having no knowledge, do not think I have.”
49. “Excellence” is not a gift, but a skill that takes practice.
We do not act “rightly” because we are “excellent”,
in fact we achieve “excellence” by acting “rightly”.
We do not act “rightly” because we are “excellent”,
in fact we achieve “excellence” by acting “rightly”.
50. “People are like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die.”
51. “The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness; for that runs faster than death.”
52. “No human thing is of serious importance.”
53. “False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.”
54. “He whom loves touches not walks in darkness.”
55. “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.”
56. “Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed, by the masses.”
57. “A house that has a library in it has a soul.”
58. “Necessity is the mother of invention.”
59. “There are three classes of men; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain.”
60. “In politics we presume that everyone who knows how to get votes knows how to administer a city or a state. When we are ill… we do not ask for the handsomest physician, or the most eloquent one.”
61. “How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state? ”
62. “Love is simply the name for the desire and pursuit of the whole.
63. “The greatest wealth is to live content with little.”
64. “Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.”
65. “You should not honor men more than truth.”
66. “There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.”
67. “The beginning is the most important part of the work.”
68. “When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them.”
69. “The object of education is to teach us to love what is beautiful.”
70. “Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge. ”
71. “Education is teaching our children to desire the right things.”
72. “The madness of love is the greatest of heaven’s blessings.”
73. “Courage is knowing what not to fear.”
74. “Those who tell the stories rule society.”
75. “There is truth in wine and children”
76. “One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”
77. “Love is a serious mental disease.”
78. “The measure of a man is what he does with power.”
79. “good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws”
80. “If women are expected to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things.”
81. “Ignorance, the root and stem of every evil.”
82. “I’m trying to think, don’t confuse me with facts.”
83. “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.”
84. “Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.”
85. “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.”
86. “Only the dead have seen the end of war.”
87. “The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”
88. “Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.”
89. “The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself.”
90. “According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate parts, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves.”
91. “I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”
92. “Never discourage anyone…who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.”
93. “Philosophy is the highest music.”
94. “Time is the moving image of reality”
95. “Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being”
96. “The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things.”
97. “Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance”
98. “Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity”
95. “Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being”
96. “The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things.”
97. “Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance”
98. “Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity”
99. “Is there a perfect world?”
100. “Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.”
100. “Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.”
