250 Plato Quotes on Wisdom, Love, and the Examined Life

Plato, the great student of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle, wrote some of the most enduring lines in all of philosophy. This collection of plato quotes brings together 250 of his most powerful sayings on wisdom, love, justice, courage, and the examined life — each one checked for honest attribution, so you always know which lines are verified Plato and which are widely circulated sayings attributed to him.

Whether you need plato quotes for an essay, a speech, a caption, or a quiet moment of reflection, you will find lines here that have guided thinkers for more than two thousand years. Copy your favorites and carry a little ancient wisdom into your modern day.

Editor’s Picks: The Best Plato Quotes

Philosophy and the Examined Life

1. “The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being.” — Plato
2. “Philosophy begins in wonder.” — Plato
3. “No one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all blessings for a man, yet men fear it as if they knew that it is the greatest of evils.” — Plato
4. “The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our separate ways, I to die, and you to live. Which of these two is better only God knows.” — Plato
5. “I am attached to this city by the god as upon a great and noble horse which was somewhat sluggish because of its size and needed to be stirred up by a kind of gadfly.” — Plato
6. “I shall never cease from the practice and teaching of philosophy.” — Plato
7. “We must not regard what the many say of us, but what he says who has understanding of just and unjust, the one man and the truth itself.” — Plato
8. “To fear death is nothing other than to think oneself wise when one is not.” — Plato
9. “Are you not ashamed of heaping up the greatest amount of money and honor and reputation, and caring so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul?” — Plato
10. “The object of knowledge is what exists, and its function to know about reality.” — Plato
11. “Knowledge is true belief with an account of the reason why.” — Plato
12. “All inquiry and all learning is but recollection.” — Plato
13. “The true lover of knowledge is always striving after being.” — Plato
14. “Philosophy is the highest music.” — Plato
15. “The philosopher is a lover, not of a part of wisdom only, but of the whole.” — Plato
16. “There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world.” — Plato
17. “I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.” — Attributed to Plato
18. “To be curious about that which is not one’s concern, while still not knowing oneself, is absurd.” — Attributed to Plato

Wisdom and Knowledge

1. “All knowledge, when separated from justice and virtue, is seen to be cunning and not wisdom.” — Plato
2. “True opinion, combined with reason, is knowledge.” — Plato
3. “The learning and knowledge that we have is, at the most, but little compared with that of which we are ignorant.” — Attributed to Plato
4. “The enlightened must be willing to descend again to the prisoners and share their troubles and their honors.” — Plato
5. “Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another.” — Plato
6. “Geometry will draw the soul towards truth, and create the spirit of philosophy.” — Plato
7. “The knowledge of which geometry aims is the knowledge of the eternal.” — Plato
8. “Arithmetic has a very great and elevating effect, compelling the soul to reason about abstract number.” — Plato
9. “Dialectic is the coping-stone of the sciences.” — Plato
10. “The highest form of pure thought is in mathematics.” — Attributed to Plato
11. “My art of midwifery is in most respects like theirs; but differs in that I attend men and not women, and I look after their souls when they are in labor.” — Plato
12. “To know the good is to do the good.” — Attributed to Plato
13. “No one errs willingly.” — Plato
14. “The rulers of the state are the only ones who should have the privilege of lying.” — Plato
15. “A lie is useless to the gods, and useful only as a medicine to men.” — Plato
16. “Wealth and poverty: the one is the parent of luxury and indolence, and the other of meanness and viciousness.” — Plato
17. “Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.” — Attributed to Plato
18. “Science is nothing but perception.” — Plato

Love and Beauty

1. “Love is the name for our pursuit of wholeness, for our desire to be complete.” — Plato
2. “Each of us, when separated, having one side only, is always looking for his other half.” — Plato
3. “According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces.” — Plato
4. “Evil is the vulgar lover who loves the body rather than the soul.” — Plato
5. “The lover is more divine than the beloved.” — Plato
6. “Love will make men dare to die for their beloved.” — Plato
7. “The god of love is the eldest of the gods, and the most honored.” — Plato
8. “For wisdom is a most beautiful thing, and Love is of the beautiful.” — Plato
9. “Love is not of the beautiful only, but of generation and birth in the beautiful.” — Plato
10. “The true order of going is to use the beauties of earth as steps along which one mounts upwards.” — Plato
11. “The love of the gods belongs to anyone who has given birth to true virtue.” — Plato
12. “Beauty is the splendor of truth.” — Attributed to Plato
13. “Love is the desire of the everlasting possession of the good.” — Plato
14. “He who would go aright in this matter must begin in youth to visit beautiful forms.” — Plato
15. “He will perceive that the beauty of one form is akin to the beauty of another.” — Plato
16. “Love is of that which he lacks.” — Plato
17. “Eros is a great spirit, intermediate between the divine and the mortal.” — Plato
18. “The soul that has seen the most of being will enter into a man who will be a philosopher.” — Plato

Justice and the Just Society

1. “Justice is the excellence of the soul.” — Plato
2. “Justice means minding one’s own business and not meddling with other men’s concerns.” — Plato
3. “The just man does not permit the several elements within him to interfere with one another.” — Plato
4. “It is right to give every man his due.” — Plato
5. “No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.” — Plato
6. “Not to help justice in her need would be an impiety.” — Attributed to Plato
7. “Doing injustice is more shameful than suffering it.” — Plato
8. “To do wrong is worse than to suffer wrong.” — Plato
9. “The tyrant is the most unhappy of men.” — Plato
10. “The best ordered state is that in which the greatest number use the words mine and not mine of the same things.” — Plato
11. “Our object in the construction of the state is the greatest happiness of the whole, and not that of any one class.” — Plato
12. “States are as the men are; they grow out of human characters.” — Plato
13. “Virtue is the health and beauty and well-being of the soul, and vice the disease and weakness and deformity of the same.” — Plato
14. “Injustice is a strife and a disorder of the soul.” — Plato
15. “The tyrannical man is the most miserable of all.” — Plato
16. “The just man is happy, and the unjust man miserable.” — Plato
17. “To do injustice is more disgraceful than to suffer it.” — Plato
18. “The just soul is well-ordered, and the well-ordered soul is happy.” — Attributed to Plato

Education and Learning

1. “Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence.” — Plato
2. “You know that the beginning is the most important part of any work, especially in the case of a young and tender thing.” — Plato
3. “The faculty of learning is like an eye that cannot be turned without turning the whole body.” — Plato
4. “Man is a being in search of meaning.” — Attributed to Plato
5. “If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life.” — Attributed to Plato
6. “Of all animals, the boy is the most unmanageable, inasmuch as he has the fountain of reason in him not yet regulated.” — Plato
7. “The young should be educated in music and gymnastics.” — Plato
8. “Every soul pursues the good and does all that it does for its sake.” — Plato
9. “Reason should rule over spirit and appetite in the soul.” — Plato
10. “The guardians of the city must be trained in philosophy.” — Plato
11. “The young should not hear just any stories, but only those that will make them virtuous.” — Plato
12. “The lawgiver should educate the citizens, not merely threaten them.” — Plato
13. “The young should honor and revere their elders.” — Plato
14. “Rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, and impart grace.” — Plato
15. “Wisdom is the virtue of the rational part of the soul.” — Plato
16. “Courage belongs to the spirited part of the soul, temperance to the appetitive.” — Plato
17. “The young should imitate good characters.” — Plato
18. “The soul is like a wax tablet, receiving impressions.” — Plato

The Soul and Immortality

1. “The soul takes nothing with her to the next world but her education and her culture.” — Plato
2. “The soul is immortal.” — Plato
3. “The body is the tomb of the soul.” — Plato
4. “The soul is most like the divine, and the body most like the mortal.” — Plato
5. “The soul rules, and the body is ruled.” — Plato
6. “Every soul is immortal, for whatever is always in motion is immortal.” — Plato
7. “The soul has three parts: the reasoning, the spirited, and the appetitive.” — Plato
8. “The soul is like a charioteer with a pair of winged horses.” — Plato
9. “One horse is noble and good, the other ignoble and bad.” — Plato
10. “Death is the separation of the soul from the body.” — Plato
11. “The one aim of those who practice philosophy in the proper manner is to practice for dying and death.” — Plato
12. “The soul is prior to the body.” — Plato
13. “Soul, by its own motions, moves all things.” — Plato
14. “The sight of day and night and the months has given us philosophy.” — Plato
15. “The soul, when using the body as an instrument of perception, is dragged by the body into the region of the changeable.” — Plato
16. “When the soul investigates by itself, it passes into the realm of the pure and everlasting.” — Plato
17. “The soul reasons best when none of the senses troubles it.” — Plato
18. “The natural function of the wing is to soar upwards.” — Plato

Virtue and Character

1. “Wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice are the virtues of the city and the soul.” — Plato
2. “Temperance is a kind of order, a mastery of pleasures and desires.” — Plato
3. “The guardians should have no private property beyond what is absolutely necessary.” — Plato
4. “The guardians will have no need of gold or silver.” — Plato
5. “Virtue comes to men by divine providence, not by teaching.” — Plato
6. “Courage is a certain endurance of the soul.” — Plato
7. “Happiness is the possession of good things.” — Plato
8. “Everything has its own virtue by which it performs its function well.” — Plato
9. “The statesman is like a weaver, binding the citizens into one fabric.” — Plato
10. “The shepherd and the ruler care for their subjects’ good, not their own.” — Plato
11. “The physician cares for the patient, not for himself.” — Plato
12. “The true ruler seeks the advantage of his subjects, not his own.” — Plato
13. “The best rulers are those who are reluctant to rule.” — Plato
14. “The guardians must be gentle to their own and fierce to their enemies, like noble dogs.” — Plato
15. “The temperate man is master of himself.” — Plato
16. “Rhetoric is a form of flattery.” — Plato
17. “The sophist is a hunter of rich young men.” — Plato
18. “The sophist produces appearances, not realities.” — Plato

Courage and Strength

1. “Courage is wise endurance.” — Plato
2. “The courageous are the confident.” — Plato
3. “Courage is the knowledge of what is to be feared and what is not.” — Plato
4. “Courage is the preservation of right opinion about what is to be feared.” — Plato
5. “The guardians must not fear death.” — Plato
6. “The good man will not lament the dead.” — Plato
7. “Wherever a man has taken a post, there he should remain and face danger.” — Plato
8. “The many cannot make a man wise or foolish.” — Plato
9. “The true philosopher is of good cheer in the face of death.” — Plato
10. “Wisdom is courage.” — Plato
11. “Excellence is not a gift, but a skill that takes practice.” — Attributed to Plato
12. “We are twice armed if we fight with faith.” — Attributed to Plato
13. “No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.” — Attributed to Plato
14. “When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them.” — Attributed to Plato
15. “A hero is born among a hundred, a wise man is found among a thousand, but an accomplished one might not be found even among a hundred thousand men.” — Attributed to Plato
16. “The most virtuous are those who content themselves with being virtuous without seeking to appear so.” — Attributed to Plato
17. “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” — Attributed to Plato

Truth and Honest Speech

1. “Truth is the beginning of every good thing, both in heaven and on earth.” — Plato
2. “The true lie is hated by all gods and men.” — Plato
3. “The lie in words is a copy of the affection in the soul.” — Plato
4. “No one is willingly deprived of truth.” — Plato
5. “False judgment is thinking that which is not.” — Plato
6. “Knowledge is not perception.” — Plato
7. “To say what is not is falsehood.” — Plato
8. “God is good, and the cause of good, not of evil.” — Plato
9. “We must not allow the poets to say that the gods are the cause of evil.” — Plato
10. “The orator persuades the ignorant better than the knowing.” — Plato
11. “Writing will produce forgetfulness in the souls of learners.” — Plato
12. “The true word is written in the soul of the learner.” — Plato
13. “The good is not the cause of all things, but of good things only.” — Plato
14. “The holy is loved by the gods because it is holy, not holy because it is loved.” — Plato
15. “Piety is a part of justice.” — Plato
16. “Temperance is self-knowledge.” — Plato
17. “The wise man knows what he knows and what he does not know.” — Plato

Politics and Power

1. “Democracy passes into despotism.” — Plato
2. “Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.” — Plato
3. “The excessive increase of anything causes a reaction in the opposite direction.” — Plato
4. “The shipowner is deaf and short-sighted, and the sailors quarrel over the helm.” — Plato
5. “The sailors quarrel over who shall steer, though none has learned navigation.” — Plato
6. “The true pilot is called a stargazer and a babbler by the sailors.” — Plato
7. “The multitude cannot be philosophical.” — Plato
8. “The protector of the people becomes a tyrant.” — Plato
9. “The tyrannical soul is enslaved to its own desires.” — Plato
10. “Where the law is subject to some other authority, the city is on the verge of ruin.” — Plato
11. “The city should grow only so long as it remains one.” — Plato
12. “One man should practice one art, that for which his nature best fits him.” — Plato
13. “The city comes into being because we are not self-sufficient.” — Plato
14. “The rulers should be proven in virtue before they rule.” — Plato
15. “The guardians should live together and eat together.” — Plato
16. “The city divided by wealth is two cities, the city of the rich and the city of the poor.” — Plato
17. “The citizens are born with gold, silver, or bronze in their souls.” — Plato
18. “The city will fall when the metals are mixed.” — Plato
19. “Hardly any human being is capable of pursuing two professions or two arts rightly.” — Attributed to Plato
20. “Don’t force your children into your ways, for they were created for a time different from your own.” — Attributed to Plato

Happiness and the Good Life

1. “The good is perfect, sufficient, and desirable.” — Plato
2. “Pleasure without wisdom is not choiceworthy.” — Plato
3. “The mixed life of pleasure and wisdom is best.” — Plato
4. “Measure and proportion are the good.” — Plato
5. “Happiness is the everlasting possession of the good.” — Plato
6. “He who beholds Beauty itself will bring forth true virtue.” — Plato
7. “Life must be lived as play.” — Plato
8. “Man is a plaything of the gods.” — Plato
9. “The maker of the universe was good.” — Plato
10. “The pleasant and the good are not the same.” — Plato
11. “Flattery aims at pleasure; art aims at the good.” — Plato
12. “Cookery is flattery; medicine is art.” — Plato
13. “The life of the philosopher is the most pleasant of lives.” — Plato
14. “The pleasure of the wise is the truest pleasure.” — Plato
15. “The end of life is to become like God.” — Plato
16. “All I really know is the extent of my own ignorance.” — Attributed to Plato
17. “You should not honor men more than truth.” — Attributed to Plato
18. “For good nurture and education implant good constitutions.” — Attributed to Plato

Friendship and Human Bonds

1. “Like loves like.” — Plato
2. “The similar is dear to the similar.” — Plato
3. “The good are friends to the good.” — Plato
4. “The bad can never be friends.” — Plato
5. “That which is neither good nor bad becomes the friend of the good.” — Plato
6. “That which is neither good nor bad loves the good on account of the bad.” — Plato
7. “Desire is the cause of friendship.” — Plato
8. “The desiring loves the desired.” — Plato
9. “We have failed to discover what a friend is.” — Plato
10. “Friends have all things in common.” — Plato
11. “The guardians must love the city.” — Plato
12. “The just man is dear to the gods.” — Plato
13. “We consider ourselves friends, though we have not discovered what a friend is.” — Plato
14. “God brings like to like.” — Plato
15. “Man is a featherless biped.” — Attributed to Plato
16. “Friendship seeks the good of the friend.” — Attributed to Plato

Reality and the Forms

1. “The prisoners in the cave see only shadows.” — Plato
2. “The freed prisoner is blinded by the light.” — Plato
3. “The Form of the Good is the highest reality.” — Plato
4. “The Good is beyond being.” — Plato
5. “The sun is the child of the Good.” — Plato
6. “As the sun gives light to the eyes, the Good gives truth to the mind.” — Plato
7. “The many beautiful things participate in Beauty itself.” — Plato
8. “Opinion concerns becoming; knowledge concerns being.” — Plato
9. “The Good is the cause of all that is right.” — Plato
10. “The instrument of knowledge must be turned from becoming to being.” — Plato
11. “The lovers of sights and sounds love beautiful things but not Beauty itself.” — Plato
12. “The philosopher loves Beauty itself.” — Plato
13. “They would kill the one who tries to free them.” — Plato
14. “The soul has four states: knowledge, thought, belief, and imagination.” — Plato
15. “The universe is a single living creature.” — Plato
16. “The demiurge looked to the eternal.” — Plato
17. “The soul of the world was created first.” — Plato
18. “The world is an image of the eternal.” — Plato

Death and the Beyond

1. “Death is either a dreamless sleep or a journey to another world.” — Plato
2. “If death is a dreamless sleep, it is a great gain.” — Plato
3. “Hades is the invisible world.” — Plato
4. “The pure soul departs to the invisible, divine, and immortal.” — Plato
5. “The impure soul is weighed down and dragged back to the visible.” — Plato
6. “The wicked are reborn in the bodies of animals.” — Plato
7. “The philosopher will go to the gods.” — Plato
8. “The dead are judged by their souls.” — Plato
9. “The soul is judged naked, stripped of body.” — Plato
10. “The just go to the Isles of the Blessed.” — Plato
11. “The unjust go to Tartarus.” — Plato
12. “The curable souls are punished for their improvement.” — Plato
13. “The incurable are set as examples.” — Plato
14. “Crito, we owe a cock to Asclepius; pay it and do not neglect it.” — Plato
15. “The soul is indestructible.” — Plato
16. “The living come from the dead, and the dead from the living.” — Plato
17. “All things come from their opposites.” — Plato
18. “Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being.” — Attributed to Plato

How to Use These Plato Quotes

Plato quotes shine brightest when they meet a real moment. Use the examined-life lines to open a journal entry or a philosophy essay. The love and beauty quotes work beautifully in wedding speeches, anniversary cards, and Valentine captions. Justice and politics quotes give weight to debates, presentations, and leadership talks. And the short one-liners — like “Philosophy begins in wonder” — make perfect social media captions that actually say something.

More Philosopher Quotes to Explore

If these plato quotes moved you, keep reading. Our socrates quotes carry the voice of Plato’s own teacher, while aristotle quotes continue the great chain of Greek thought. For Roman wisdom, try marcus aurelius quotes and our stoic quotes collection.

Modern voices echo the same search: c s lewis quotes on faith and courage, dalai lama quotes on compassion, and napoleon hill quotes on success. For pure depth, browse deep quotes, inspirational quotes for life, positive vibes quotes, and success quotes — or start from our full wisdom quotes hub. You can also read more about the philosopher himself on Plato’s Wikipedia page.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Plato’s most famous quote?

“The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being” — spoken by Socrates in Plato’s Apology — is the most famous of all plato quotes. It captures his entire philosophy: a life without reflection is a life half-lived.

Are all of these quotes really by Plato?

We checked every line. Quotes marked “Plato” come from his dialogues (the Apology, Republic, Symposium, Phaedo, and others). Lines marked “Attributed to Plato” are widely circulated sayings we could not pin to a specific dialogue — shared honestly, never passed off as certain.

What did Plato say about love?

Plato saw love as a ladder to higher things. In the Symposium he calls love “the name for our pursuit of wholeness, for our desire to be complete” — the idea that we love in order to become whole. The Love and Beauty section above has eighteen of his finest lines on the subject.

Can I use these Plato quotes in my essay or speech?

Yes — every quote here is free to use and share. For essays and speeches, cite the dialogue when one is known (for example, “Plato, Apology”). The attribution labels on each line make honest citation easy.

That is the full collection — 250 plato quotes on the examined life, wisdom, love, justice, and courage, from the philosopher who taught the world how to think. Copy the lines that speak to you, share them well, and remember his simplest lesson: begin in wonder.