Plato
Plato
Platowas a philosopher in Classical Greece and the founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. He is widely considered the most pivotal figure in the development of philosophy, especially the Western tradition. Unlike nearly all of his philosophical contemporaries, Plato's entire œuvre is believed to have survived intact for over 2,400 years...
NationalityGreek
ProfessionPhilosopher
fasting efficiency greater
I fast for greater physical and mental efficiency
inspirational education philosophy
...for the object of education is to teach us to love beauty.
believe eye men
In heaven there is laid up a pattern which he who chooses may behold, and beholding, set his own house in order. The time has now arrived at which they must raise the eye of the soul to the Universal Light which lightens all things. With the eye ever directed toward things fixed and immutable which neither injure nor are injured - these they cannot help imitating. But I quite admit the difficulty of believing that in every man there is an eye of the soul which by the right direction is re-illumined, and is more precious far than ten thousand bodily eyes.
advice progress matter
Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow... even if that someone is yourself!
sheep care
The wolf cares not, how many the sheep be.
people priorities care
... because it is correct to make a priority of young people, taking care that they turn out as well as possible...
beauty eye reality
Remember how in that communion only, beholding beauty with the eye of the mind, he will be enabled to bring forth, not images of beauty, but realities (for he has hold not of an image but of a reality), and bringing forth and nourishing true virtue to become the friend of God and be immortal, if mortal man may.
evil soul world
To go to the world below, having a soul which is like a vessel full of injustice, is the last and worst of all the evils.
wise plato heaven
We ought to fly away from earth to heaven as quickly as we can; and to fly away is to become like God, as far as this is possible; and to become like him is to become holy, just, and wise.
wise justice brave
Justice in the individual is now defined analogously to justice in the state. The individual is wise and brave in virtue of his reason and spirit respectively: he is disciplined when spirit and appetite are in proper subordination to reason. He is just in virtue of the harmony which exists when all three elements of the mind perform their proper function and so achieve their proper fulfillment; he is unjust when no such harmony exists.
music republic art-education
Music is a more potent instrument than any other for education.
order everyday vision
In order to seek one's own direction, one must simplify the mechanics of ordinary, everyday life.
science soul looks
Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another.
courage knowing
Courage is knowing what to fear.