When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing more to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.
— Plato
Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence.
It is right to give every man his due.
Democracy passes into despotism.
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.
Cunning... is but the low mimic of wisdom.
Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.
Man - a being in search of meaning.
Courage is knowing what not to fear.
Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself.
No one ever teaches well who wants to teach, or governs well who wants to govern.
The beginning is the most important part of the work.
The greatest wealth is to live content with little.
If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life.
Science is nothing but perception.
There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.
Democracy... is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder; and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.
When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them.
When there is an income tax, the just man will pay more and the unjust less on the same amount of income.
Knowledge is true opinion.
The learning and knowledge that we have, is, at the most, but little compared with that of which we are ignorant.
Knowledge without justice ought to be called cunning rather than wisdom.
Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety.
Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.
Attention to health is life's greatest hindrance.
At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.
I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.
Whatever deceives men seems to produce a magical enchantment.
Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.
The most virtuous are those who content themselves with being virtuous without seeking to appear so.
Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.
He who is not a good servant will not be a good master.
Excess generally causes reaction, and produces a change in the opposite direction, whether it be in the seasons, or in individuals, or in governments.
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.
To love rightly is to love what is orderly and beautiful in an educated and disciplined way.
The curse of me and my nation is that we always think things can be bettered by immediate action of some sort, any sort rather than no sort.
All men are by nature equal, made all of the same earth by one Workman; and however we deceive ourselves, as dear unto God is the poor peasant as the mighty prince.
This City is what it is because our citizens are what they are.
The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile.
Courage is a kind of salvation.
Nothing can be more absurd than the practice that prevails in our country of men and women not following the same pursuits with all their strengths and with one mind, for thus, the state instead of being whole is reduced to half.
Better a little which is well done, than a great deal imperfectly.
They certainly give very strange names to diseases.
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.
Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.
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.
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.
