Plato

Plato (c. 427 BC - 347 BC)

Ancient Greek philosopher

The Republic

• "As Themistocles answered Seriphian who was abusing him and saying that he was famous not for his own merits but because he was an Athenian: 'If you had been a native of my country or I of yours, neither of us would have been famous.'"

• "The tools which would teach men their own use would be beyond price."

• "Can any man be courageous who has the fear of death in him?"

• "And first he will see the shadows best, next the reflections of men and other objects in the water, and then the objects themselves, then he will gaze upon the light of the moon and the stars and the spangled heaven...Last of all he will be able to see the sun."

• "If you can discover a better way of life than office-holding for your future rulers, a well-governed city becomes a possibility. For only in such a state will those rule who are truly rich, not in gold, but in the wealth that makes happiness--a good and wise life."

This fragment is also translated as:

"You must contrive for your future rulers another and a better life than that of a ruler, and then you may have a well-ordered State; for only in the State which offers this, will they rule who are truly rich, not in silver and gold, but in virtue and wisdom, which are the true blessings of life."

Attributed

• "There is only one good, which is knowledge, and one evil, which is ignorance."

• "Only the dead have seen the end of war."

• "Must not all things at the last be swallowed up in death?"

• "Wherever it has been established that it is shameful to be involved with sexual relationships with men, that is due to evil on the part of the rulers, and to cowardice on the part of the governed."

• "The learning and knowledge that we have, is, at the most, but little compared to that of which we are ignorant."

• "No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth."

• "You cannot conceive the many without the one."