The collection / 243 fragments

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Passages, proverbs, and questions carried across the ages.

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01Undated

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.

Plato / quote

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02Undated

Piety, then, is that which is dear to the gods, and impiety is that which is not dear to them.

Plato / quote

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03Undated

....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)

Plato / quote

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04Undated

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].

Plato / quote

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05Undated

For to fear death, men, is in fact nothing other than to seem to be wise, but not to be so. For it is to seem to know what one does not know: no one knows whether death does not even happen to be the greatest of all goods for the human being; but people fear it as though they knew well that it is the greatest of evils.

Plato / quote

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06Undated

You should not honor men more than truth.

Plato / quote

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07Undated

Plato / quote

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08Undated

He was a wise man who invented God.

Plato / quote

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09Undated

I thought to myself: I am wiser than this man; neither of us probably knows anything that is really good, but he thinks he has knowledge, when he has not, while I, having no knowledge, do not think I have.

Plato / quote

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10Undated

Wise men talk because they have something to say; Fools, because they have to say something.

Plato / quote

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11Undated

The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depends upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation, the man of manly character and of wisdom.

Plato / quote

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12Undated

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.

Plato / quote

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13Undated

Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.

Plato / quote

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14Undated

There is also a third kind of madness, which is possession by the Muses, enters into a delicate and virgin soul, and there inspiring frenzy, awakens lyric....But he, who, not being inspired and having no touch of madness in his soul, comes to the door and thinks he will get into the temple by the help of art--he, I say, and his poetry are not admitted; the sane man is nowhere at all when he enters into rivalry with the madman.

Plato / quote

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15Undated

Writing is the geometry of the soul.

Plato / quote

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16Undated

Calligraphy is a geometry of the soul which manifests itself physically.

Plato / quote

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17Undated

A poet, you see, is a light thing, and winged and holy, and cannot compose before he gets inspiration and loses control of his senses and his reason has deserted him.

Plato / quote

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18Undated

Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.

Plato / quote

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19Undated

Either we shall find what it is we are seeking or at least we shall free ourselves from the persuasion that we know what we do not know.

Plato / quote

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20Undated

Knowledge is the food of the soul.

Plato / quote

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21Undated

Those who don't know must learn from those who do.

Plato / quote

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22Undated

Then we shan’t regard anyone as a lover of knowledge or wisdom who is fussy about what he studies…

Plato / quote

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23Undated

Knowledge unqualified is knowledge simply of something learned.

Plato / quote

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24Undated

And whenever any one informs us that he has found a man who knows all the arts, and all things else that anybody knows, and every single thing with a higher degree of accuracy than any other man –whoever tells us this, I think that we can only imagine him to be a simple creature who is likely to have been deceived by some wizard or actor whom he met, and whom he thought all-knowing, because he himself was unable to analyze the nature of knowledge and ignorance and imitation.

Plato / quote

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