Looking for the best Plato quotes? Then look no further.
Plato was an Athenian philosopher during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He was the founder of the Platonist school of thought, and the Academy, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world.
He is widely considered the pivotal figure in the history of Ancient Greek and Western philosophy, along with his teacher, Socrates, and his most famous student, Aristotle.
Plato has been cited as one of the founders of Western religion and spirituality. He was the innovator of the written dialogue and dialectic forms in philosophy and he also appears to be the founder of Western political philosophy. His biggest contribution being Platonism, the doctrine of the Forms known by pure reason to provide a realist solution to the problem of universals.
While the popularity of his contemporaries fluctuated over the years, the works of Plato have never been without readers since the time they were written.
I’ve put together 55 of the best Plato quotes about life that will help you to become successful. Hope you like them.
55 Best Plato Quotes About Life
1. “Apply yourself both now and in the next life. Without effort, you cannot be prosperous. Though the land be good, you cannot have an abundant crop without cultivation.” – Plato
2. “The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile.” – Plato
3. “Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.” – Plato
4. “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.” – Plato
5. “Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.” – Plato
6. “A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.” – Plato
7. “The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depends 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.” – Plato
8. “He who is not a good servant will not be a good master.” – Plato
9. “If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life.” – Plato
10. “We are twice armed if we fight with faith.” – Plato
11. “Those who intend on becoming great should love neither themselves nor their own things, but only what is just, whether it happens to be done by themselves or others.” – Plato
12. “There is no harm in repeating a good thing.” – Plato
13. “Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself.” – Plato
14. “I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.” – Plato
15. “And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul.” – Plato
16. “Truth is the beginning of every good to the gods, and of every good to man.” – Plato
17. “Life must be lived as play.” – Plato
18. “Hardly any human being is capable of pursuing two professions or two arts rightly.” – Plato
19. “Philosophy begins in wonder.” – Plato
20. “He who is of 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.” – Plato
21. “Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.” – Plato
22. “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
23. “There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.” – Plato
24. “The measure of a man is what he does with power.” – Plato
25. “Better a little which is well done, than a great deal imperfectly.” – Plato
26. “Courage is knowing what not to fear.” – Plato
27. “Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil.” – Plato
28. “The greatest wealth is to live content with little.” – Plato
29. “All things will be produced in superior quantity and quality, and with greater ease, when each man works at a single occupation, in accordance with his natural gifts, and at the right moment, without meddling with anything else.” – Plato
30. “Man – a being in search of meaning.” – Plato
31. “Necessity… the mother of invention.” – Plato
32. “No man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nature and education.” – Plato
33. “Wealth is well known to be a great comforter.” – Plato
34. “No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.” – Plato
35. “Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety.” – Plato
36. “Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.” – Plato
37. “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.’” – Plato
38. “Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.” – Plato
39. “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” – Plato
40. “We do not learn, and what we call learning is only a process of recollection.” – Plato
41. “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.” – Plato
42. “I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” – Plato
43. “Desires are only the lack of something: and those who have the greatest desires are in a worse condition than those who have none, or very slight ones.” – Plato
44. “The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself.” – Plato
45. “Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.” – Plato
46. “The key is not to live but to live well.” – Plato
47. “Reality is created by the mind, we can change our reality by changing our mind.” – Plato
48. “Don’t force your children into your ways, for they were created for a time different from your own.” – Plato
49. “The right question is usually more important than the right answer.” – Plato
50. “When you feel grateful, you become great, and eventually attract great things.” – Plato
51. “The one who learns and learns and doesn’t practice is like the one who plows and plows and never plants.” – Plato
52. “The wise man will want to be ever with him who is better than himself.” – Plato
53. “To begin is the most important part of any quest and by far the most courageous.” – Plato
54. “Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being.” – Plato
55. “A library of wisdom, is more precious than all wealth, and all things that are desirable cannot be compared to it. Whoever therefore claims to be zealous of truth, of happiness, of wisdom or knowledge, must become a lover of books.” – Plato
Did you find these quotes by Plato inspiring?
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