Plato
Plato (429 — c. 347 B.C.) was a great Greek philosopher, born in Athens, of noble birth, the year Pericles died, and the second of the Peloponnesian War. At 20, he became a disciple of Socrates, and passed eight years in his society. At 30, after the death of Socrates, quitted Athens, and took up his abode at Megara, from where he travelled to Cyrene, Egypt, Magna Græcia, and Sicily, prolonging his stay in Magna Græcia, and studying under Pythagoras, whose philosophy was then at its prime, and which exercised a profound influence over him. After ten years' wandering in this way he, at the age of 40, returned to Athens, and founded his Academy, a gymnasium outside the city with a garden, which belonged to his father, and where he gathered around him a body of disciples, and had Aristotle for one of his pupils, lecturing there with undiminished mental power till he reached the advanced age of 81.Of his philosophy one can give no account here, or indeed anywhere, it was so unsectarian. He was by pre-eminence the world-thinker, one of the most influential of all times, and though he was never married and left no son, he has all the thinking men and schools of philosophy in the world as his offspring. Enough to say that his philosophy was philosophy, as it took up in its embrace both the ideal and the real, at once the sensible and the super-sensible world. His major works are the Republic, Apology of Socrates, Phaedo and Laws. The longest and most celebrated of his works is dialogues, which also includes the Republic.
Wisdom & Quotes
- Astronomy compels the sole to look upwards and leads us from this world to another.
- The beginning is the most important part of the work.
- Of all he animals, the boy is the most unmanageable.
- The more the pleasures of the body fade away, the greater to me is the pleasure and charm of conversation.
- Democracy passes into despotism.
- The direction in which education starts, a man will determine his future Life.
- Let no one ignorant of geometry enter my door.
- The Ludicrous state of solid geometry made me pass over this branch.
- Too much attention to health is a hindrance to learning, to invention, and to studies of any kind, for we are always feeling suspicious shootings and swimmings in our heads, and we are prone to blame our studies for them.
- Honesty is for the most part less profitable than dishonesty.
- Where there is an income tax, the just man will pay more and the unjust less on the same income.
- Everywhere there is one principle of justice, which is the interest of the stronger.
- Old age has a great sense of calm and freedom. When the passions have relaxed their hold, you have escaped not from one master but from many.
- The rich have many consolations.
- Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity.
- If women are expected to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things.
- (Love is ) the joy of the good, the wonder of the wise, the amazement of the gods.
- As there are misanthropists, or haters of mankind, so there are mislogists, or haters of ideas.
- The worst of all deceptions is self-deception.
- Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.
- Truth is the beginning of every good thing, both in heaven and on earth; and he who would be blessed and happy should be from the first a partaker of truth, for then he can be trusted.
- No law or ordinance is mightier than understanding.
- Punishment brings wisdom. It is the healing art of wickedness.
Yang Tse