“If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life” 
-- Plato 


“I know not how I may seem to others, but to myself I am but a small child wandering upon the vast shores of
 knowledge, every now and then finding a small bright pebble to content myself with”
-- Plato 


“Knowledge becomes evil if the aim be not virtuous.” 
-- Plato  


“Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that
you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.” 
-- Plato 


Because a freeman ought not to be a slave in the acquisition of
knowledge of any kind. Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to
the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no
hold on the mind. -- Plato, Republic 


You are young, my son, and, as the years go by, time will change and even reverse many of your present opinions.
Refrain therefore awhile from setting yourself up as a judge of the highest matters. 
- Plato, Dialogues, Theatetus 


Wenn die Guten nicht kämpfen,
werden die Schlechten siegen...
Platon


The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. 
-- Plato 


“Strange times are these in which we live when old and young are taught in falsehoods school. And the person that 
dares to tell the truth is called at once a lunatic and fool.” ~ Plato

The society we have described can never grow into a reality or see the light of day, and there will be no end 
to the troubles of states, or indeed, my dear Glaucon, of humanity itself, till philosophers are kings in this 
world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and
philosophy thus come into the same hands, while the many natures now content to follow either to the exclusion of 
the other are forcibly debarred from doing so. This is what I have hesitated to say so long, knowing what a paradox
 it would sound; for it is not easy to see that there is no other road to happiness, either for society or the 
individual. 
-- Plato, Republic 


And those whose hearts are fixed on Reality itself deserve the title of Philosophers. 
-- Plato, Republic


When the mind's eye rests on objects enlightened by truth and reality, it understands and comprehends them, 
and functions intelligently; but when it turns to the twilight world of change and decay, it can only form 
opinions, its vision is confused and its beliefs shifting, and it seems to lack intelligence.
-- Plato, Republic


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. 
-- Plato


I don't know anything that gives me greater pleasure, or profit either, than talking or listening to philosophy. 
But when it comes to ordinary conversation, such as the stuff you talk about financiers and the money market, 
well, I find it pretty tiresome personally, and I feel sorry that my friends should think they're being very busy
when they're really doing absolutely nothing. Of course, I know your idea of me: you think I'm just a poor
unfortunate, and I shouldn't wonder if your right. But then I dont THINK that you're unfortunate - I know you are. 
-- Plato) 


There is a story, which
even you have preserved, that once upon a time Paethon, the son of
Helios, having yoked the steeds in his father's chariot, because he
was not able to drive them in the path of his father, burnt up all
that was upon the earth, and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt.
Now this has the form of a myth, but really signifies a declination of
the bodies moving in the heavens around the earth, and a great
conflagration of things upon the earth, which recurs after long
intervals; at such times those who live upon the mountains and in
dry and lofty places are more liable to destruction than those who
dwell by rivers or on the seashore.
CRITIAS (Plato dialoge "Timaeus")



O Solon, Solon, you Hellenes are
never anything but children, and there is not an old man among you.
Solon in return asked him what he meant. I mean to say, he replied,
that in mind you are all young; there is no old opinion handed down
among you by ancient tradition, nor any science which is hoary with
age. And I will tell you why. There have been, and will be again, many
destructions of mankind arising out of many causes; the greatest
have been brought about by the agencies of fire and water, and other
lesser ones by innumerable other causes. There is a story, which
even you have preserved, that once upon a time Paethon, the son of
Helios, having yoked the steeds in his father's chariot, because he
was not able to drive them in the path of his father, burnt up all
that was upon the earth, and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt.
Now this has the form of a myth, but really signifies a declination of
the bodies moving in the heavens around the earth, and a great
conflagration of things upon the earth, which recurs after long
intervals; at such times those who live upon the mountains and in
dry and lofty places are more liable to destruction than those who
dwell by rivers or on the seashore. And from this calamity the Nile,
who is our never-failing saviour, delivers and preserves us. When,
on the other hand, the gods purge the earth with a deluge of water,
the survivors in your country are herdsmen and shepherds who dwell
on the mountains, but those who, like you, live in cities are
carried by the rivers into the sea. Whereas in this land, neither then
nor at any other time, does the water come down from above on the
fields, having always a tendency to come up from below; for which
reason the traditions preserved here are the most ancient.
The fact is, that wherever the extremity of winter frost or of
summer does not prevent, mankind exist, sometimes in greater,
sometimes in lesser numbers. And whatever happened either in your
country or in ours, or in any other region of which we are informed-if
there were any actions noble or great or in any other way
remarkable, they have all been written down by us of old, and are
preserved in our temples. Whereas just when you and other nations
are beginning to be provided with letters and the other requisites
of civilized life, after the usual interval, the stream from heaven,
like a pestilence, comes pouring down, and leaves only those of you
who are destitute of letters and education; and so you have to begin
all over again like children, and know nothing of what happened in
ancient times, either among us or among yourselves. As for those
genealogies of yours which you just now recounted to us, Solon, they
are no better than the tales of children. In the first place you
remember a single deluge only, but there were many previous ones; in
the next place, you do not know that there formerly dwelt in your land
the fairest and noblest race of men which ever lived, and that you and
your whole city are descended from a small seed or remnant of them
which survived. And this was unknown to you, because, for many
generations, the survivors of that destruction died, leaving no
written word. For there was a time, Solon, before the great deluge
of all, when the city which now is Athens was first in war and in
every way the best governed of all cities, is said to have performed
the noblest deeds and to have had the fairest constitution of any of
which tradition tells, under the face of heaven.
CRITIAS (Plato dialoge "Timaeus")

First then, in my judgment, we must make a distinction and ask, What
is that which always is and has no becoming; and what is that which is
always becoming and never is? That which is apprehended by
intelligence and reason is always in the same state; but that which is
conceived by opinion with the help of sensation and without reason, is
always in a process of becoming and perishing and never really is. Now
everything that becomes or is created must of necessity be created
by some cause, for without a cause nothing can be created.
Timaeus (Plato dialoge "Timaeus")

Wherefore he made the world in the form of a globe, round as from a
lathe, having its extremes in every direction equidistant from the
centre, the most perfect and the most like itself of all figures;
Timaeus (Plato dialoge "Timaeus")


To know or tell the origin of the other divinities is beyond us, and
we must accept the traditions of the men of old time who affirm
themselves to be the offspring of the gods-that is what they say-and
they must surely have known their own ancestors. How can we doubt
the word of the children of the gods? Although they give no probable
or certain proofs, still, as they declare that they are speaking of
what took place in their own family, we must conform to custom and
believe them. In this manner, then, according to them, the genealogy
of these gods is to be received and set forth.
Oceanus and Tethys were the children of Earth and Heaven, and from
these sprang Phorcys and Cronos and Rhea, and all that generation; and
from Cronos and Rhea sprang Zeus and Here, and all those who are
said to be their brethren, and others who were the children of these.
Now, when all of them, both those who visibly appear in their
revolutions as well as those other gods who are of a more retiring
nature, had come into being, the creator of the universe addressed
them in these words: "Gods, children of gods, who are my works, and of
whom I am the artificer and father, my creations are indissoluble,
if so I will. All that is bound may be undone, but only an evil
being would wish to undo that which is harmonious and happy.
Timaeus (Plato dialoge "Timaeus")


Something has been said of this
matter already, and something more remains to be said, which is,
that motion never exists in what is uniform. For to conceive that
anything can be moved without a mover is hard or indeed impossible,
and equally impossible to conceive that there can be a mover unless
there be something which can be moved-motion cannot exist where either
of these are wanting, and for these to be uniform is impossible;
wherefore we must assign rest to uniformity and motion to the want
of uniformity.
- Plato (Plato dialoge "Timaeus")


We must acknowledge disease of the mind to be a want of
intelligence; and of this there are two kinds; to wit, madness and
ignorance. In whatever state a man experiences either of them, that
state may be called disease; and excessive pains and pleasures are
justly to be regarded as the greatest diseases to which the soul is
liable. For a man who is in great joy or in great pain, in his
unseasonable eagerness to attain the one and to avoid the other, is
not able to see or to hear anything rightly; but he is mad, and is
at the time utterly incapable of any participation in reason. He who
has the seed about the spinal marrow too plentiful and overflowing,
like a tree overladen with fruit, has many throes, and also obtains
many pleasures in his desires and their offspring, and is for the most
part of his life deranged, because his pleasures and pains are so very
great; his soul is rendered foolish and disordered by his body; yet he
is regarded not as one diseased, but as one who is voluntarily bad,
which is a mistake.
- Timaeus (Plato dialoge "Timaeus")


And once more, when body large and too
strong for the soul is united to a small and weak intelligence, then
inasmuch as there are two desires natural to man,-one of food for
the sake of the body, and one of wisdom for the sake of the diviner
part of us-then, I say, the motions of the stronger, getting the
better and increasing their own power, but making the soul dull, and
stupid, and forgetful, engender ignorance, which is the greatest of
diseases.
- Timaeus (Plato dialoge "Timaeus")


There is one protection against both kinds of
disproportion:-that we should not move the body without the soul or
the soul without the body, and thus they will be on their guard
against each other, and be healthy and well balanced. And therefore
the mathematician or any one else whose thoughts are much absorbed
in some intellectual pursuit, must allow his body also to have due
exercise, and practise gymnastic; and he who is careful to fashion the
body, should in turn impart to the soul its proper motions, and should
cultivate music and all philosophy, if he would deserve to be called
truly fair and truly good.
- Timaeus (Plato dialoge "Timaeus")


When a man is always occupied with the cravings of desire and
ambition, and is eagerly striving to satisfy them, all his thoughts
must be mortal, and, as far as it is possible altogether to become
such, he must be mortal every whit, because he has cherished his
mortal part. But he who has been earnest in the love of knowledge
and of true wisdom, and has exercised his intellect more than any
other part of him, must have thoughts immortal and divine, if he
attain truth, and in so far as human nature is capable of sharing in
immortality, he must altogether be immortal; and since he is ever
cherishing the divine power, and has the divinity within him in
perfect order, he will be perfectly happy. Now there is only one way
of taking care of things, and this is to give to each the food and
motion which are natural to it. And the motions which are naturally
akin to the divine principle within us are the thoughts and
revolutions of the universe. These each man should follow, and correct
the courses of the head which were corrupted at our birth, and by
learning the harmonies and revolutions of the universe, should
assimilate the thinking being to the thought, renewing his original
nature, and having assimilated them should attain to that perfect life
which the gods have set before mankind, both for the present and the
future.
- Timaeus (Plato dialoge "Timaeus")