Plato Quotes

All sober inquirers after truth, ancient and modern, pagan and Christian, have declared that the happiness of man, as well as his dignity, consists in virtue.

Justice is happiness according to virtue.

True knowledge gives a moral standing and moral strength.

The order of nature [is] that individual happiness shall be inseparable from the practice of virtue.

Life is the reward of virtue. And happiness is the goal and reward of life.

The Good of man is the active exercise of his soul's faculties in conformity with excellence or virtue, or if there be several human excellences or virtues, in conformity with the best and most perfect among them.

The only word for goodness is goodness, and it is not enough.

Virtue is nothing but an act of loving that which is to be beloved, and that act is prudence, from whence not to be removed by constraint is fortitude; not to be allured by enticements is temperance; not to be diverted by pride is justice.

Virtue does not come from wealth, but wealth, and every other good thing which men have comes from virtue.

Is not virtue a negation of becoming?

I have seen men incapable of the sciences, but never any incapable of virtue.

There is no greater wealth than Virtue,And no greater loss than to forget it.

What is the real relation between happiness and goodness? It is only within a few generations that men have found courage to say that there is none.

The happiness of man, as well as his dignity, consists in virtue.

He who would govern his actions by the laws of virtue must regulate his thoughts by those of reason.

The whole of virtue consists in its practice.

Moral excellence has no regard to classes and professions.

The sum of all is, if we would most truly enjoy this gift of Heaven, let us become a virtuous people.

It still remains true that no justification of virtue will enable a man to be virtuous.

Virtue, though she gets her beginning from nature, yet receives her finishing touches from learning.

Without virtue, happiness cannot be.

There is no royal road or ready way to virtue.

Virtue is not an end in itself. Virtue is not its own reward or sacrificial fodder for the reward of evil. Life is the reward of virtue-and happiness is the goal and the reward of life.

As to virtue . . . it is an act of the will, a habit which increases the quantity, intensity and quality of life. It builds up, strengthens and vivifies personality.

Knowledge is, indeed, that which, next to virtue, truly and essentially raises one man above another.