Plato Quotes

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

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.

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

A political society cannot endure without a supreme will somewhere.

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

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

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.

The human race will have no respite from evils until those who are really philosophers acquire political power or until, through some divine dispensation, those who rule and have political authority in the cities become real philosophers.

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

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.

It is clear that those constitutions which aim at the common good are right, as being in accord with absolute justice; while those which aim only at the good of the rulers are wrong.

If the prince of a State love benevolence, he will have no opponent in all the empire.

Does it seem to you impossible to imagine anything more inextricable than the social contract, when you think of the frightful number of relations that it must regulate -- something like squaring the circle, or finding perpetual motion? That is the reason why, wearied of the struggle, you fall back on absolutism and force.

When we speak of power, we mean man's control over the minds and actions of other men. By political power we refer to the mutual relations of control among the holders of public authority and between the latter and the people at large.

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

The queens in history compare favorably with the kings.

Those who have ruled human destinies, like planets, for thousands of years, were not handsome men.

Elections have consequences. And I fundamentally believe - this is my personal opinion, I know it's a slightly partisan thing to say - to really do what we think needs to be done, we're going to have to win some elections.

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

Politics are the divine science, after all.

Our rulers can have authority over such natural rights only as we have submitted to them.

Where the people are well educated, the art of piloting a state is best learned from the writings of Plato.

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