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.
Only a philosopher’s mind grows wings, since its memory always keeps it as close as possible to those realities by being close to which the gods are divine.
Socrates: This man, on one hand, believes that he knows something, while not knowing [anything]. On the other hand, I – equally ignorant – do not believe [that I know anything].
….I am inclined to think that these muscles and bones of mine would have gone off long ago to Megara or Boeotia—by the dog they would, if they had been moved only by their own idea of what was best.(tr Jowett)
Piety, then, is that which is dear to the gods, and impiety is that which is not dear to them.
To conquer oneself is the best and noblest victory; to be vanquished by one’s own nature is the worst and most ignoble defeat.
The philosopher whose dealings are with divine order himself acquires the characteristics of order and divinity.
In practice people who study philosophy too long become very odd birds, not to say thoroughly vicious; while even those who are the best of them are reduced by…[philosophy] to complete uselessness as members of society.
False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.
Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul.
How could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads?
For this feeling of wonder shows that you are a philosopher, since wonder is the only beginning of philosophy.
In politics we presume that everyone who knows how to get votes knows how to administer a city or a state. When we are ill… we do not ask for the handsomest physician, or the most eloquent one.
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.
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.
Love is the joy of the good, the wonder of the wise, the amazement of the Gods.
You’re my star, a stargazer too,
and I wish that I were heaven,
with a billion eyes to look at you.
The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.
O dear Pan and all the other gods of this place, grant that I may be beautiful inside. Let all my external possessions be in friendly harmony with what is within. May I consider the wise man rich. As for gold, let me have as much as a moderate man could bear and carry with him.
One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.
…when he looks at Beauty in the only way that Beauty can be seen – only then will it become possible for him to give birth not to images of virtue (because he’s in touch with no images), but to true virtue [arete] (because he is in touch with true Beauty). The love of the gods belongs to anyone who has given to true virtue and nourished it, and if any human being could become immortal, it would be he.
For to fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise without really being wise, for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For no one knows whether death may not be the greatest good that can happen to man.
Wonder is the feeling of the philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.
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.
No one knows whether death, which people fear to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good.
…and when one of them meets the other half, the actual half of himself, whether he be a lover of youth or a lover of another sort, the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy and one will not be out of the other’s sight, as I may say, even for a moment…
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.
Then the lover, who is true and no counterfeit, must of necessity be loved by his love.