Wonder is the feeling of the philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.
And poets do really know the things about which they seem to the many to speak so well?
We've heard many people say and have often said ourselves that justice is doing one's own work and not meddling with what isn't one's own ... Then, it turns out that this doing one's own work-provided that it comes to be in a certain way-is justice.
For good nurture and education implant good constitutions.
A house that has a library in it has a soul.
We may state the question thus:—Imitation imitates the actions of men, whether voluntary or involuntary, on which, as they imagine, a good or bad result has ensued, and they rejoice or sorrow accordingly. Is there anything more? No, there is nothing else.
I believe that oligarchy follows next in order. And what manner of government do you term oligarchy? A government resting on a valuation of property, in which the rich have power and the poor man is deprived of it.
Be of good cheer, then, my dear Crito, and say that you are burying my body only.
Always be kind, for everyone is fighting a hard battle.
Love is a serious mental illness.
The civilized East is immeasurably in advance of any savage tribes; the Greeks and Romans have improved upon the East; the Christian nations have been stricter in their views of the marriage relation than any of the ancients.
Love is simply the name for the desire and pursuit of the whole.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Piety, then, is that which is dear to the gods, and impiety is that which is not dear to them.
False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.
We ask what is the origin of marriage, and we are told that like the right of property, after many wars and contests, it has gradually arisen out of the selfishness of barbarians.
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.
For it is not because they fear doing unjust deeds, but because they fear suffering them, that those who blame injustice do so.
Nothing could be more important than that the work of a soldier is well done. No tools will make a man a skilled workmen, or master of defense, or be of any use to him who has not learned how to handle them and has never bestowed any attention on them.
I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly conflict.
Better a little which is well done, than a great deal imperfectly.
Those who reproach injustice do so because they are afraid not of doing it but of suffering it.
It is by justice, that we can truly authenticate a man's value or nullity, the absence of justice, is the absence of what makes him man.
We are completely perplexed, then, and you must clear up the question for us, of what you intend to signify when you use the word "being". Obviously you must be quite familiar with what you mean, whereas we, who formerly imagined we knew, are now at a loss.
I would rather have a good friend than the best cock or quail in the world: I would even go further, and say the best horse or dog.
For what lover would not choose rather to be seen by all mankind than by his beloved, either when abandoning his post or throwing away his arms? He would be ready to die a thousand deaths rather than endure this.
He who is a useful keeper of anything is also a better thief.
Love is a madness produced by an unsatisfiable rational desire to understand the ultimate truth about the world.
The soul takes flight to the world that is invisible but there arriving she is sure of bliss and forever dwells in paradise.
Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.
Men say that we ought not to enquire into the supreme God and the nature of the universe, nor busy ourselves in searching out the causes of things, and that such enquiries are impious; whereas the very opposite is the truth.
Let the speaker speak truly and the judge decide justly.
Because it is correct to make a priority of young people, taking care that they turn out as well as possible...
Knowledge is the food of the soul.
Necessity... the mother of invention.
Mankind censure injustice fearing that they may be the victims of it, and not because they shrink from committing it.
For this," he said, "is the great error of our day in the treatment of the human body, that physicians separate the soul from the body.
Handwriting is the shackle of the mind.
Man - a being in search of meaning.
It is impossible to improve the world if first the man does not improve.
Eat and drink and sit with the mighty, and make yourself agreeable to them; for from the good you will learn what is good, but if you mix with the bad you will lose the intelligence which you already have.
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.
Knowledge is prior to any particular knowledge, and exists not in the previous state of the individual, but of the race. It is potential, not actual, and can only be appropriated by strenuous exertion.
There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.
They say that to do injustice is, by nature, good; to suffer injustice, evil; but that the evil is greater than the good.
Wealth, and poverty; the one is the parent of luxury and indolence, and the other of meanness and viciousness, and both of discontent.
Democracy... is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder; and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.
Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue.
