Plato Quotes - Page 8

• The study of the properties of numbers, Plato tells us, habituates the mind to the contemplation of pure truth, and raises us above the material universe. He would have his disciples apply themselves to this study, not that they may be able to buy or sell, not that they may qualify themselves to be shopkeepers or travelling merchants, but that they may learn to withdraw their minds from the ever-shifting spectacle of this visible and tangible world, and to fix them on the immutable essences of things.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Essence, Numbers, Mind

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• Then a sentimental passion of a vegetable fashion must excite your
  languid spleen,
  An attachment a la Plato for a bashful young potato, or a
  not-too-French French bean!

  W. S. Gilbert

  Fashion, Passion, Attachment

  'Patience' (1881) act 1

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• I came to Paul at quite an early age, having already studied Plato and Aristotle; and I found Paul easily their intellectual equal, though he was handling these amazing questions about God, Jesus, Israel, faith and so on. He continues to be an amazingly stimulating thinker, especially when we try to understand the flow of thought in letter after letter rather than just combing him for a few verses on 'our favourite topics', which, sadly, some Christian teachers do just as some journalists and broadcasters do!

  N. T. Wright

  Christian, Teacher, Jesus

  Source: kenwytsma.com

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• Plato assumes somehow that government is a way in which you put unselfish and ungreedy men in charge of selfish and greedy men. But government is an institution whereby the people who have the greatest drive to get power over their fellow men, get in a position of controlling them. Look at the record of government. Where are these philosopher kings that Plato supposedly was trying to develop?

  Milton Friedman

  Kings, Selfish, Men

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• Plato defines melody to consist of harmony, number and words: harmony naked of itself, words the ornament of harmony, number the common friend and uniter of them both.

  John Dowland

  Numbers, Ornaments, Naked

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• When Catholicism goes bad it becomes the world-old, world-wide religio of amulets and holy places and priestcraft. Protestantism,in its corresponding decay, becomes a vague mist of ethical platitudes. Catholicism is accused of being too much like all the other religions; Protestantism of being insufficiently like a religion at all. Hence Plato, with his transcendent Forms, is the doctor of Protestants; Aristotle, with his immanent Forms, the doctor of Catholics.

  C. S. Lewis

  Doctors, Catholic, Amulets

  C. S. Lewis (2013). “The Allegory of Love”, p.403, Cambridge University Press

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• Half of these aren't even Machiavelli. Some are Plato, Thucydides etc....doesnt anyone check these?

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Half, Etc, Checks

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• Socrates became a trendsetter. Other philosophers, including Plato and Aristotle and Gus, quickly followed suit, dropping their last names too. And, for centuries after that there would be countless imitators including oltaire, Michelangelo, and, much later, Cher.

  Demetri Martin

  Names, Suits, Would Be

  Demetri Martin (2011). “This Is a Book”, p.37, Hachette UK

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• Society is an illusion to the young citizen. It lies before him in rigid repose, with certain names, men, and institutions, rootedlike oak-trees to the centre, round which all arrange themselves the best they can. But the old statesman knows that society is fluid; there are no such roots and centres; but any particle may suddenly become the centre of the movement, and compel the system to gyrate round it, as every man of strong will, like Pisistratus, or Cromwell, does for a time, and every man of truth, like Plato, or Paul, does forever.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Strong, Lying, Men

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “The Selected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.161, Graphic Arts Books

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• How will you go about finding that thing the nature of which is totally unknown to you?" (Plato) The things we want are transformative, and we don’t know or only think we know what is on the other side of that transformation. Love, wisdom, grace, inspiration- how do you go about finding these things that are in some ways about extending the boundaries of the self into unknown territory, about becoming someone else?

  Rebecca Solnit

  Inspiration, Thinking, Self

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• Plato and Hitler were both the same kind of consistent socialists who planned also for the production of future socialists, the breeding and education of future members of society.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Kind, Members, Breeding

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• Plato was right, but not quite right.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  "Saint Thomas Aquinas: The Dumb Ox". Book by G. K. Chesterton, 1934.

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• I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are wise and very beautiful; but I have never read in either of them: Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden.

  Saint Augustine

  Beautiful, Wise, Wisdom

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• Being in love, as both Plato and David Bowie have pointed out, is horrible.

  Stefano Benni

  Being In Love, Bowie, Horrible

  Stefano Benni, Antony Shugaar (2006). “Margherita Dolce Vita”, Europa Editions Incorporated

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• I don't want my kids growing up with the image of God that I had -- Plato's white grandfatherly god -- because that god is not a very good father. When it comes down to it, you can't trust him with your kids.

  William P. Young

  Growing Up, Father, Kids

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• I intend Deaths in Venice to contribute both to literary criticism and to philosophy. But it's not "strict philosophy" in the sense of arguing for specific theses. As I remark, there's a style of philosophy - present in writers from Plato to Rawls - that invites readers to consider a certain class of phenomena in a new way. In the book, I associate this, in particular, with my good friend, the eminent philosopher of science, Nancy Cartwright, who practices it extremely skilfully.

  Philip Kitcher

  Philosophy, Book, Good Friend

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

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• We may like well to know what is Plato’s and what is Montesquieu’s or Goethe’s part, and what thought was always dear to the writer himself; but the worth of the sentences consists in their radiancy and equal aptitude to all intelligence. They fit all our facts like a charm. We respect ourselves the more that we know them.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  May, Aptitude, Facts

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2614, Delphi Classics

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• In Plato's opinion, man was made for philosophy; in Bacon's opinion, philosophy was made for man.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Philosophy, Science, Men

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• The error which underlies the very existence of this debate is that there is some kind of perfect Platonic form of the computer language, which some real languages reflect more perfectly than others. Plato was brilliant for his time but reality is not expressable in terms of arbitrary visions of perfection, and furthermore, one programmer's ideal is often another's hell.

  Paul Vixie

  Real, Errors, Perfection

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• At an early age I sucked up the milk of Homer, Virgil, Horace, Terence, Anacreon, Plato and Euripides, diluted with that of Moses and the prophets.

  Denis Diderot

  Atheism, Age, Milk

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• By reading a man does, as it were, antedate his life, and make himself contemporary with the ages past; and this way of running up beyond one's nativity is better than Plato's pre-existence.

  Jeremy Collier

  Running, Reading, Men

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• In PLATO AT THE GOOGLEPLEX, Rebecca Newberger Goldstein set out to showcase, in sometimes startling ways, the continuing relevance of a classic philosopher. But what's remarkable is that she actually brings off this tour de force with both madcap brilliance and commanding authority.

  Michael Dirda

  Way, Philosopher, Classic

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• What Plato was really asking was perhaps why a horse was a horse, and not, for example, a cross between a horse and a pig.

  Jostein Gaarder

  Horse, Pigs, Example

  Jostein Gaarder (2010). “Sophie's World”, p.76, Hachette UK

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• It must be so, Plato, thou reason'st well!

  Joseph Addison

  Reason, Wells

  'Cato' (1713) act 5, sc. 1, l. 1

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• While wading through the whimsies, the puerilities, and unintelligible jargon of this work [Plato's Republic], I laid it down often to ask myself how it could have been that the world should have so long consented to give reputation to such nonsense as this?

  Thomas Jefferson

  Philosophy, Science, Should Have

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, Correspondence, and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Late President of the United States”, p.248

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