Plato
427 BC-347 BC
The Republic
, the best known of these many dialogues with Socrates, mentor, as the central character, expounds idealism of noted Greek philosopher Plato and describes a hypothetical utopian state that thinkers rule; he taught and wrote for much his life at the Academy, which he founded near Athens around 386 BC. Platonism, the philosophy of Plato, especially asserts the phenomena of the world as an imperfect and transitory reflection of ideal forms, an absolute and eternal reality.
Aristotle began as a pupil of Plato. Plotinus and his successors at Alexandria in the 3rd century developed Neoplatonism, a philosophical system, based on Platonism with elements of mysticism and some Judaic and Christian concepts. Philosophy of Saint Thomas Aquinascombined Neoplatonism with the doctrines of Aristotle within a context of Christian thought.
This classical mathematician and student started the first institution of higher learning in the western world. Alongside his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the western science.
Plato of the most important western exerted influence on virtually every figure and authored the first comprehensive work on politics. Plato also contributed to ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology. Aristotle, his extremely influential student, also tutored Alexander the Great of Macedonia.
“Man...is a tame or civilized animal; never the less, he requires proper instruction and a fortunate nature, and then of all animals he becomes the most divine and most civilized; but if he be insufficiently or ill- educated he is the most savage of earthly creatures.”
“what if the man could see Beauty Itself, pure, unalloyed, stripped of mortality, and all its pollution, stains, and vanities, unchanging, divine,...the man becoming in that communion, the friend of God, himself immortal;...would that be a life to disregard?”
“Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable.”
“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.”
“: اگه با دلت کسي يا چيزي رو دوست داشتي زياد جدي نگيرش. چون کار دل دوست داشتنه... درست مثل کار چشم که ديدنه ... ولي اگه کسي رو با عقلت دوست داشتي بدون داري چيزي رو تجربه مي کني که اسمش عشق واقعيه”
“Only a philosopher's mind grows wings, since its memory always keeps it as close as possible to those realities by being close to which the gods are divine.”
“Death is not the worst that can happen to men.”
“Let parents then bequeath to their children not riches but the spirit of reverence.”
“My dear Homer, if you are really only once removed from the truth, with reference to virtue, instead of being twice removed and the manufacturer of a phantom, according to our definition of an imitator, and if you need to be able to distinguish between the pursuits which make men better or worse, in private and in public, tell us what city owes a better constitution to you, as Lacedaemon owes hers to Lycurgus, and as many cities, great and small, owe theirs to many other legislators? What state attributes to you the benefits derived from a good code of laws? Italy and Sicily recognize Charondas in this capacity, and we solon. But what state recognizes you.”
“Only the dead have seen the end of war.”
“No thing more excellent nor more valuable than wine was ever granted mankind by God.”
“good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws”
“You should not honor men more than truth.”
“The soul takes nothing with her to the next world but her education and her culture. At the beginning of the journey to the next world, one's education and culture can either provide the greatest assistance, or else act as the greatest burden, to the person who has just died.”
“I have hardly ever known a mathematician who was capable of reasoning.”
“If women are expected to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things.”
“Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge. ”
“How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state? ”
“Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others. ”
“A hero is born among a hundred, a wise man is found among a thousand, but an accomplished one might not be found even among a hundred thousand men. ”
“Those who tell the stories rule society.”
“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”
“There are three classes of men; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain.”
“One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”
“Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.”
“There is truth in wine and children”
“The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”
“Would he not say with Homer,. Better to be the poor servant of a poor master, and to endure anything, rather than think as they do and live after their ...”
“Musical innovation is full of danger to the State, for when modes of music change, the fundamental laws of the State always change with them.”
“The madness of love is the greatest of heaven's blessings.”
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.”
“But Above all things truth beareth away the victory”