Plato (427 BC—347 BC)

"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."

"All the gold which is under or upon the earth is not enough to give in exchange for virtue."

"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around these laws."

"Truth is the beginning of every good to the gods, and of every good to man."

"Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."

"To love rightly is to love what is orderly and beautiful in an educated and disciplined way."

"Knowledge is the food of the soul."

"A good decision is based on knowledge and not numbers."

"Your silence gives consent."

"Whatever deceives man seems to produce a magical enchantment."

"Excess of liberty, whether it lies in state or individuals, seems only to pass into excess of slavery."

"Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of man. Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance. Knowledge without justice ought to be called cunning rather than wisdom."

"This and no other is the root from where a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector."

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

"When a Benefit is wrongly conferred, the author of the Benefit may often be said to injure."

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

"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 call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands."