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date: 15 May 2025

Plato 429–347 bc
Greek philosopher. See also Santayana 

  1. Socrates, he says, breaks the law by corrupting young men and not recognizing the gods that the city recognizes, but some other new deities.
    Apologia 24b
  2. Is that which is holy loved by the gods because it is holy, or is it holy because it is loved by the gods?
    Euthyphro 10
  3. Of all animals the boy is the most unmanageable.
    Laws bk. 8, 808
  4. This was the end, Echekrates, of our friend; a man of whom we may say that of all whom we met at that time he was the wisest and justest and best.
    on the death of Socrates
    Phaedo 118a
  5. The country places and the trees won't teach me anything, and the people in the city do.
    Phaedrus 230d
  6. For what should a man live, if not for the pleasures of discourse?
    Phaedrus 258e
  7. What I say is that ‘just’ or ‘right’ means nothing but what is in the interest of the stronger party.
    spoken by Thrasymachus
    The Republic bk. 1, 338c (tr. F. M. Cornford)
  8. Can we devise one of those lies—the kind which crop up as the occasion demands, which we were talking about not so long ago—so that with a single noble lie we can indocrinate the rulers themselves, preferably, but at least the rest of the community?
    The Republic bk. 3, 414b (tr. Robin Waterfield)
  9. And so with the objects of knowledge: these derive from the Good not only their power of being known, but their very being and reality; and Goodness is not the same thing as being, but even beyond being, surpassing it in dignity and power.
    The Republic bk. 6, 509b (tr. F. M. Cornford)
  10. Behold! human beings living in a underground den…Like ourselves…they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave.
    The Republic bk. 7, 515b; see Nietzsche
  11. The city in which those who are to rule are least eager to hold office must needs be the best governed and freest from strife.
    The Republic bk. 7, 520
  12. The blame is his who chooses: God is blameless.
    The Republic bk. 10, 617e
  13. But if we are guided by me we shall believe that the soul is immortal and capable of enduring all extremes of good and evil, and so we shall hold ever to the upward way and pursue righteousness with wisdom always and ever.
    The Republic bk. 10, 621c
  14. God is always doing geometry.
    Plutarch Moralia