Plato

It seems to me that whatever else is beautiful apart from asbsolute beauty is beautiful because it partakes of that absolute beauty, and for no other reason. Do you accept this kind of causality?

May not the wolf, as the proverb says, claim a hearing?

Equals, the proverb goes, delight in equals.

Let parents then bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence.

There is an ancient saying, which is a true one—"To fight against two opponents is a difficult thing."

There's a victory and defeat—the first and best of victories, the lowest and worst of defeats—which each man gains or sustains at the hands not of another, but of himself.

Of all animals the boy is the most unmanageable, inasmuch as he has the fountain of reason in him not yet regulated.

The community which has neither poverty nor riches will always have the noblest principles.

Death is not the worst that can happen to men.

There is no harm in repeating a good thing.

Much sleep is not required by nature, either for our souls or bodies, or for the actions in which they are concerned.

As the proverb says, "a good beginning is half the business" and "to have begun well" is praised by all.

The only real ill-doing is the deprivation of knowledge.

He who steals a little steals with the same wish as he who steals much, but with less power.

And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul.

[The Cretans have] more wit than words.

Fly from the company of the wicked—fly and turn not back.

Then not only an old man, but also a drunkard, becomes a second time a child.

To prefer evil to good is not in human nature; and when a man is compelled to choose one of two evils, no one will choose the greater when he might have the less.

The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men.

Injustice is censured because the censures are afraid of suffering, and not from any fear which they have of doing injustice.

And may we not say, Adeimantus, that the most gifted minds, when they are ill- educated, become the worst?

Let brother help brother.

Excess of liberty, whether it lies in state or individuals, seems only to pass into excess of slavery.

Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion has no hold on the mind.

One man cannot practice many arts with success.

The rulers of the state are the only persons who ought to have the privilege of lying, either at home or abroad; they may be allowed to lie for the good of the state.

They will take a state and human nature for their tablet, and begin by making a clean surface.

No trace of slavery ought to mix with the studies of the freeborn man.... No study, pursued under compulsion, remains rooted in the memory.

We ought to esteem it of the greatest importance that the fictions which children first hear should be adapted in the most perfect manner to the promotion of virtue.

You know that the beginning is the most important part of any work, especially in the case of a young and tender thing; for that is the time at which the character is being framed.

For the introduction of a new kind of music must be shunned as imperiling the whole state; since styles of music are never disturbed without affecting the most important political institutions.

There is no such thing as a lovers' oath.

I am about to die, and that is the hour in which men are gifted with prophetic power.

It is a common saying, and in everybody's mouth, that life is but a sojourn.

He who is of a calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age, but to him who is of an opposite disposition youth and age are equally a burden.

The people always have some champion whom they set over them and nurse into greatness.... This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.

The eyes of the soul of the multitudes are unable to endure the vision of the divine.

I shall assume that your silence gives consent.

To suffer the penalty of too much haste, which is too little speed.

You cannot go into the same water twice.

Philosophy begins in wonder.

There is an ancient saying that, "Hard is the knowledge of the good."

Better a little which is well done, than a great deal imperfectly.

No man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nature and education.

To think truly is noble and to be deceived is base.

Wonder is the feeling of the philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.

Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil.

It is clear to everyone that astronomy at all events compels the soul to look upwards, and draws it from the things of this world to the other.

Poets utter great and wise things which they do not themselves understand.