|
PLATO Quotes
(427-347 B. C), Greek philosopher
Nothing is more disgraceful than for a man who is nothing, to hold himself honored on account of his forefathers; and yet hereditary honors are a noble and splendid treasure to descendants.
He best keeps from anger who remembers that God is always looking upon him.
Few men are so obstinate in their atheism, that a pressing danger will not compel them to the acknowledgment of a divine power.
Atheism is a disease of the soul, before it becomes an error of the understanding.
Health, beauty, vigor, riches, and all the other things called goods, operate equally as evils to the vicious and unjust, as they do as benefits to the just.
Books are immortal sons deifying their sires.
Conversion is not implanting eyes, for they exist already; but giving them a right direction, which they have not.
Refrain from covetousness, and thy estate shall prosper.
All men are by nature equal, made, all, of the same earth by the same Creator, and however we deceive ourselves, as dear to God is the poor peasant as the mighty prince.
Excess generally causes reaction and produces a change in the opposite direction, whether it be in the seasons, or in individuals, or in government.
The love of man to woman is a thing common and of course, and at first partakes more of instinct and passion than of choice; but true friendship between man and man is infinite and immortal.
To escape from evil we must be made, as far as possible, like God; and this resemblance consists in becoming just, and holy, and wise.
The punishment suffered by the wise who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of bad men.
Health, beauty, vigor, riches, and all toe other things called good, operate equally as evils to the vicious and unjust, as they do as benefits to the just.
Holiness is what is loved by all the gods. It is loved because it is holy, and not holy because it is loved.
Hereditary honors are a noble and splendid treasure to descendants.
Better be unborn than untaught, for ignorance is the root of misfortune.
He who commits injustice is ever made more wretched than he who suffers it.
Princes are never without flatterers to seduce them; ambition to deprave them; and desires to corrupt them.
Ignorance of all things is an evil neither terrible nor excessive, nor yet the greatest of all; but great cleverness and much learning, if they be accompanied by a bad training, are a much greater misfortune.
The learning and knowledge that we have, is, at the most, but little compared with that of which we are ignorant.
Light is the shadow of God.
All loves should be simply stepping-stones to the love of God. So it was with me; and blessed be his name for his great goodness and mercy.
If a man be endued with a generous mind, this is the best kind of nobility.
The passionate are like men standing on their heads; they see all things the wrong way.
There can be no affinity nearer than our country.
Poetry comes nearer to vital truth than history.
Poets utter great and wise things which they do not themselves understand.
It is as expedient that a wicked man be punished as that a sick man be cured by a physician; for all chastisement is a kind of medicine.
The cause of all the blunders committed by man arises from excessive self-love.—He who intends to be a great man ought to love neither himself nor his own things, but only what is just, whether it happens to be done by himself or by another.
The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depend upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation, the man of manly character and of wisdom.
Those wretches who never have experienced the sweets of wisdom and virtue, but spend all their time in revels and debauches, sink downward day after day, and make their whole life one continued series of errors. They taste no real or substantial pleasure; but, resembling so many brutes, with eyes always fixed on the earth, and intent upon their loaden tables, they pamper themselves in luxury and excess.
If I were sure God would pardon me, and men would not know my sin, yet I should be ashamed to sin, because of its essential baseness.
Slavery is a system of the most complete injustice.
As empty vessels make the loudest sound, so they that have least wit are the greatest babblers.
Do not train boys to learning by force and harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be the better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.
Thinking is the talking of the soul with itself.
Nothing is more unworthy of a wise man, or ought to trouble him more, than to have allowed more time for trifling, and useless things, than they deserved.
Seven years of silent inquiry are needful for a man to learn the truth, but fourteen in order to learn how to make it known to his fellowmen.
Perfect wisdom hath four parts, viz., wisdom, the principle of doing things aright; justice, the principle of doing things equally in public and private; fortitude, the principle of not flying danger, but meeting it; and temperance, the principle of subduing desires and living moderately.
The world is God's epistle to mankind—his thoughts are flashing upon us from every direction.
|
