Plato Quotes

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

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.

I do not believe that politics in the long run is about individuals. It is about ideas.

Only I can turn this country around.

We live in a world in which politics has replaced philosophy.

New laws are written, and new men are made.

The people are difficult to govern: It is because those in authority are too fond of action [change].

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.

In order that a people may be free, it is necessary that the governed be sages, and those who govern, gods.

Politics is social work with power.

It is easier to run a revolution than a government.

It's so much easier to throw rocks than it is to govern.

Politics is an instrument that can transform society.

Men of power have no time to read; yet the men who do not read are unfit for power.

America somehow thinks that leadership relates to governance, and it certainly does. But society is much bigger than governance, and some of the truly great leadership of our society is outside the governance arena.

The purpose of a politician is to be a leader. A politician has to lead. Otherwise he's just a follower.

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.

Kings may be judges of the earth, but wise men are the judges of kings.

When you see how the President makes political or policy decisions, you see who he is. The essence of the Presidency is decision-making.

My plan is to govern as long as I can.

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

What is government itself but the great reflection of human nature.

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

Nothing destroyeth authority so much as the unequal and untimely interchange of power pressed too far, and relaxed too much.