Quote collection
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"The philosopher is in love with truth, that is, not with the changing world of sensation, which is the object of opinion, but with the unchanging reality which is the object of knowledge."
"The blame is his who chooses: God is blameless."
"Homosexuality is regarded as shameful by barbarians and by those who live under despotic governments just as philosophy is regarded as shameful by them, because it is apparently not in the interest of such rulers to have great ideas engendered in their subjects, or powerful friendships or passionate love - all of which homosexuality is particularly apt to produce."
"When I hear a man discoursing of virtue, or of any sort of wisdom, who is a true man and worthy of his theme, I am delighted beyond measure: and I compare the man and his words, and note the harmony and correspondence of them. And such an one I deem to be the true musician, having in himself a fairer harmony than that of the lyre."
"Music is to the mind as air is to the body."
"Let praise be given equally to women as well as men who have been distinguished in virtue."
"I have hardly ever known a mathematician who was capable of reasoning."
"All things will be produced in superior quantity and quality, and with greater ease, when each man works at a single occupation, in accordance with his natural gifts, and at the right moment, without meddling with anything else."
"Democracy leads to anarchy, which is mob rule."
"A man is not learned until he can read, write and swim."
"To win over your bad self is the grandest and foremost of victories."
"Seek truth while you are young, for if you do not, it will later escape your grasp"
"One trait in the philosopher's character we can assume is his love of the knowledge that reveals eternal reality, the realm unaffected by change and decay. He is in love with the whole of that reality, and will not willingly be deprived even of the most insignificant fragment of it - just like the lovers and men of ambition we described earlier on."
"Knowledge is the rediscovering of our own insight."
"The beginning is the most important part...for that is the time character is being formed."
"Knowledge of the soul is the only universal truth and the only wisdom - all other knowledge is transient."
"It is through geometry that one purifies the eye of the soul."
"Each citizen should play his part in the community according to his individual gifts."
"All thought begins with the recognition that something is out of place."
"A sensible man will remember that the eyes may be confused in two ways - by a change from light to darkness or from darkness to light; and he will recognize that the same thing happens to the soul."