The Republic

Famous quotes

• He who is of calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age, but to him who is of an opposite disposition youth and age are equally a burden.

  In context

  • Age

• When there is an income-tax, the just man will pay more and the unjust less on the same amount of income

  Book IIn context

  • Justice
  • Money

• Mankind censure injustice fearing that they may be the victims of it, and not because they shrink from committing it.

  Republic, Book I, 344cIn context

  • Justice

• The beginning is the most important part of any work.

  377aIn context

  • Work

• Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul

  Book IIIIn context

  • Education
  • Music

• Friends have all things in common.

  Phaedrus, 279cIn context

  • Friendship

• The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life.

  Republic, Book IV, 425BIn context

  • Education

• 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,⁠—nor the human race, as I believe

  Book VIn context

  • Government
  • Leadership
  • Philosophy

• Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another.

  In context

  • Science

• I have hardly ever known a mathematician who was capable of reasoning.

  Book VIIIn context

  • Clever Jabs
  • Science

• Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.

  Republic, Book VII, 536eIn context

  • Knowledge

• Democracy, which is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.

  Book VIIIIn context

  • Democracy
  • Government

• A tyrant is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.

  Book VIII, 566e.In context

  • War & Peace

• There are three arts which are concerned with all things: one which uses, another which makes, and a third which imitates them.

  In context

  • Art

• No human thing is of serious importance.

  Republic, Book X, 604cIn context

• There is an ancient quarrel between philosophy and poetry

  Book XIn context

  • Philosophy
  • Poetry

• The soul of man is immortal and imperishable.

  In context

  • God

Contents