Plato Quotes

If you do not know the laws of right conduct, you cannot form your character.

Education is the art of making man ethical.

One goes through school, college, medical school and one's internship learning little or nothing about goodness but a good deal about success.

The end of education is to see men made whole, both in competence and in conscience.

Parents are usually more careful to bestow knowledge on their children rather than virtue, the art of speaking well rather than doing well; but their manners should be of the greatest concern.

Good actions ennoble us, and we are the sons of our deeds.

Heart and head are the constituent parts of character; temperament has almost nothing to do with it, and, therefore, character is dependent upon education, and is susceptible of being corrected and improved.

Virtue comes by nature, learning, and practice, and thanks to virtue, all of the aforesaid may deserve approval.

Tutors who make youth learned do not always make them virtuous.

In vain we build the city if we do not first build the man

Erudition - that is, reading, writing, and arithmetic - is taught in the schools; but where is the more important quality, character, taught? Nowhere in particular. There is no authorized training for children in character.

I'm a good man, and I'm gonna become a better man.

An education is not so much about making a living as making a person.

For he that is a good man, is three quarters of his way towards the being a good Christian, wheresoever he lives, or whatsoever he is called.

Education without morals is like a ship without a compass, merely wandering nowhere.

It is much easier to make good men wise, than to make bad men good.

Without goodness a man cannot endure adversity for long, nor can he enjoy prosperity for long. The good man is naturally at ease with goodness. The wise man cultivates goodness for its advantage.

The entire object of true education is to make people not merely do the right things, but enjoy the right things — not merely industrious, but to love industry — not merely learned, but to love knowledge — not merely pure, but to love purity — not merely just, but to hunger and thirst after justice.

Nature does not bestow virtue; to be good is an art.

Moral excellence is the bright consummate flower of all progress.

It cannot, indeed, be denied, that a good man is more worthy of love than a bad one.

None But such as are good men can give good things, And that which is not good, is not delicious To a well-govern'd and wise appetite.

Education to perfect gentlemanship, to human excellence, liberal education consists in reminding oneself of human excellence, of human greatness.

Indeed the general natural Tendency of Reading good History, must be, to fix in the Minds of Youth deep Impressions of the Beauty and Usefulness of Virtue of all Kinds, Publick Spirit, Fortitude.