Plato Quotes on Politics

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.

At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet.

Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.

Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil.

He, O men, is the wisest, who, like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing.

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.

Courage is knowing what not to fear.

The measure of a man is what he does with power.

He who commits injustice is ever made more wretched than he who suffers it.

Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.

One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine.

The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself.

Ideas are the source of all things.

Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil.

Education is teaching our children to desire the right things.

Courage is knowing what not to fear.

The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.

Democracy passes into despotism.

The measure of a man is what he does with power.

The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life.

The greatest wealth is to live content with little.

Love is a serious mental disease.

Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.

You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.

Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.

The just man is happy and the unjust miserable.

Ideas are the source of all things.

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.

There is no such thing as a lover’s oath.

He who commits injustice is ever made more wretched than he who suffers it.

Democracy passes into despotism.

Love is a serious mental disease.

The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life.

Education is teaching our children to desire the right things.

Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil.

Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.

The just man is happy and the unjust miserable.

The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself.

Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.

The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.

We are twice armed if we fight with faith.

A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.

Only the dead have seen the end of war.

I do nothing but go about persuading you all, old and young alike, not to take thought for your persons or your properties, but and chiefly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul.

Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.

Statesman, be not precipitate in concluding friendship with everyone, but first examine his qualities; then, and only then, make your approaches accordingly.

Justice means minding one’s own business and not meddling with other men’s concerns.

At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.

No one ever teaches well who wants to teach, or governs well who wants to govern.

Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.