Plato Quotes

There will be no end to the troubles of states,Or of humanity itself,Till philosophers become kings in this world,Or till those we now call kings and rulers really And truly become philosophers

There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become 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.

A state would be happy where philosophers were kings or kings were philosophers.

Cynics who say power is all that counts in politics forget that power without ideas is just improvisation.

Who so taketh in hand to frame any state or government ought to presuppose that all men are evil, and at occasions will show themselves so to be.

Politics is social work with power.

Politics is the art of making civilization work.

Rulers come and go; governments end and forms of government change; but sovereignty survives.

Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and political greatness and wisdom meet in one, and those commoner natures who pursue either to the exclusion of the other are compelled to stand aside, cities will never have rest from their evils - no, nor the human race, as I believe - and then only will this our State have a possibility of life and behold the light of day.

It's the Platonic philosophy in The Republic that philosophers should lead the country.

It may be argued that peoples for whom philosophers legislate are always prosperous.

If absolute sovereignty be not necessary in a State, how comes it to be so in a family?

Nature abhors a vacuum, even in the heads of statesmen.

No man has come so near our definition of a constitutional statesman - the powers of a first-rate man and the creed of a second-rate man.

Politics is not a science, as the professors are apt to suppose. It is an art.

Government is the exercise of all the great qualities of the human mind.

Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always aiming at something beyond political life itself, power and glory, or happiness.

The essence of government is control, or the attempt to control.

Politics is about putting yourself in a state of grace.

Do you not know, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed?

The people who own the country are now going to get to run it.

Mankind will never see an end of trouble until... lovers of wisdom come to hold political power, or the holders of power... become lovers of wisdom

The president has to govern.

Governing has always been hard.

Do I want to be premier? Yes, I do.