Plato

For let me tell you, that the more the pleasures of the body fade away, the greater to me is the pleasure and charm of conversation.

Now you know, my friend, that I cannot measure anything, and of the beautiful, I am simply such a measure as a white line is of chalk; for almost all young persons appear to be beautiful in my eyes.

For mankind censure injustice, fearing that they may be the victims of it and not because they shrink from committing it.

He punishes for the sake of prevention, thereby clearly implying that virtue is capable of being taught.

Let him be the best of men, and let him be thought the worst; then he will have been put to the proof; and we shall see whether he will be affected by the fear of infamy and its consequences.

I am a lover of knowledge, and the men who dwell in the city are my teachers, and not the trees or the country.

Have you never observed how invincible and unconquerable is spirit and how the presence of it makes the soul of any creature to be absolutely fearless and indomitable?

He spoke and cut men in two, like a sorb-apple which is halved for pickling, or as you might divide an egg with a hair;

I mean that no one is willingly deceived in that which is the truest and highest part of himself, or about the truest and highest matters; there, above all, he is most afraid of a lie having possession of him.

And yet, I know that my plainness of speech makes them hate me, and what is their hatred but a proof that I am speaking the truth?

Thus much of music, which makes a fair ending; for what should be the end of music if not the love of beauty?

Then all but the philosophers are courageous only from fear, and because they are afraid; and yet that a man should be courageous from fear, and because he is a coward, is surely a strange thing.

It would seem, Adeimantus, that the direction in which education starts a man, will determine his future life.

And I tell you, Polus, that rhetoricians and tyrants have the least possible power in states, as I was just now saying; for they do literally nothing which they will, but only what they think best.

The friction of the two when rubbed together may possibly strike a light in which justice will shine forth, and the vision which is then revealed we will fix in our souls.

But, in general, great men are also bad, my friend.

Come up hither, I said, and behold the various forms of vice, those of them, I mean, which are worth looking at.

Yes, he said; everything that deceives may be said to enchant.

Can there be any greater evil than discord and distraction and plurality where unity ought to reign? or any greater good than the bond of unity?

Clearly then, whenever you see paupers in a State, somewhere in that neighbourhood there are hidden away thieves, and cutpurses and robbers of temples, and all sorts of malefactors.