WIST

Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.

Plato (c.428-347 BC) Greek philosopher
(Attributed)
Alt. trans. "One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics, is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." The Constitution Party (1952-68) used on their letterhead the variant, "The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." Emerson paraphrased this as "Plato says that the punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is, to live under the government of worse men." ("Eloquence," Society and Solitude (1870)).

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark. The real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.

Plato (c.428-347 BC) Greek philosopher
(Attributed)

The visible is a shadow cast by the invisible.

Plato (c.428-347 BC) Greek philosopher
(Attributed)

Quoted in Martin Luther King, Jr, Strength to Love, ch. 9 (1963)

I shall assume that your silence gives consent.

Plato (c.428-347 BC) Greek philosopher
Cratylus, xli

I would fain grow old learning many things.

Plato (c.428-347 BC) Greek philosopher
Laches, 189 A

Laws are partly formed for the sake of good men, in order to instruct them how they may live on friendly terms with one another, and partly for the sake of those who refuse to be instructed, whose spirit cannot be subdued, or softened, or hindered from plunging into evil.

Plato (c.428-347 BC) Greek philosopher
Laws, Book IX [Athenian Stranger] (360 BC)
Translated by Benjamin Jowett. Full text.

You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.

Plato (c.428-347 BC) Greek philosopher
The Republic

The true creator is necessity, which is the mother of our invention.

Plato (c.428-347 BC) Greek philosopher
The Republic, 2.369 [tr. Jowett (1894)]
Popularly: "Necessity is the mother of invention."

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

Plato (c.428-347 BC) Greek philosopher
The Republic, Book VII.536

We should consider it a lesser evil to suffer great wrongs and outrages than to do them.

Plato (c.428-347 BC) Greek philosopher
Plato, Epistles, 7.335.a [tr. Harward (1932)]