Plato Quotes

Although it may be difficult in theory to know what is just and equal, the practical difficulty of inducing those to forbear who can, if they like, encroach, is far greater, for the weaker are always asking for equality and justice, but the stronger care for none of these things.

Justice is nothing more than the advantage of the stronger.

Might does not make right but it sure makes what is.

Strength and success; they are above morality, above criticism. It seems then, that it is not what you do, but how you do it and what you call it.

Might and right do differ frightfully from hour to hour, but then centuries to try it in, they are found to be identical.

You may have the might, but that does not necessarily make you right.

Crime when it succeeds is called virtue.

Although the legal and ethical definitions of right are the antithesis of each other, most writers use them as synonyms. They confuse power with goodness, and mistake law for justice

It is the greatest good to the greatest number which is the measure of right and wrong.

The strongest is never strong enough to always be the master unless he transforms strength into right…

In relations with other nations, there is neither right nor wrong; there is only strength and weakness.

The supremacist ideology of the Bush Administration stands in opposition to the principles of an open society, which recognize that people have different views and that nobody is in possession of the ultimate truth. The supremacist ideology postulates that just because we are stronger than others, we know better and have right on our side.

Those who have no sense of right, reason or religion, have a natural propensity to make use of their strength to the destruction of such as are weaker than they.

moral, adj. Conforming to a local and mutable standard of right. Having the quality of general expediency.

For a good cause, wrongdoing is virtuous.

Some people are worried about the difference between right and wrong. I'm worried about the difference between wrong and fun.

Absolutely speaking, Do unto others as you would that they should do unto you is by no means a golden rule, but the best of current silver. An honest man would have but little occasion for it. It is golden not to have any rule at all in such a case.

Everywhere there is one principle of justice, which is the interest of the stronger.

There are times when the end justifies the means. But when you build an argument based on a whole series of such times, you may find that you've constructed an entire philosophy of evil." --Luke Skywalker

Morality, thou deadly bane, Thy tens o' thousands thou hast slain! Vain is his hope, whose stay an' trust is In moral mercy, truth, and justice!

Justice waits upon the great, Interest holds the scale, and Riches turns the balance.

I'm not good at having friends. I mean, I can make myself useful to people. I can fit in. I get invited to parties and I can sit at any table I want in the cafeteria. But actually trusting someone when they have nothing to gain from me just doesn't make sense. All friendships are negotiations of power.

Man—every man—is an end in himself, not a means to the ends of others; he must live for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself; he must work for his rational self-interest, with the achievement of his own happiness as the highest moral purpose of his life.

Might is a fine thing, and useful for many purposes; for "one goes further with a handful of might than with a bagful of right."

One’s concern with the ethics of means and ends varies inversely with one’s personal interest in the issue.