4th century BC

Philosophical literature · Religious literature

Plato, Apology · 399 BC

★ 9.7

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Lao Tzu

Tao Te Ching · 400 BC

★ 9.2

All men by nature desire to know.

Metaphysics · 322 BC

★ 9.2

Man is by nature a political animal.

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

Politics · 350 BC

★ 8.7

Philosophical dialogue · Dialogue · Philosophical literature

Democracy passes into despotism.

Plato, Republic · 375 BC

★ 8.3

Philosophical dialogue · Dialogue · Philosophical literature

For our discussion is about no ordinary matter, but on the right way to conduct our lives.

Plato, Republic · 375 BC

★ 8.3

Philosophical dialogue · Dialogue · Philosophical literature

For what should a man live, if not for the pleasures of discourse?

Plato, Republic · 375 BC

★ 8.2

Philosophical dialogue · Dialogue · Philosophical literature

Plato

Phaedrus · 370 BC

★ 8.2

Courtroom speech · Speech · Philosophical literature

I know that I do not know.

Plato, Apology · 399 BC

★ 8.1

No tyrant need fear till men begin to feel confident in each other.

Politics · 350 BC

★ 8.1

One swallow does not make a spring.

What I say is that "just" or "right" means nothing but what is to the interest of the stronger party.

The Nicomachean Ethics · 322 BC

★ 8.1

Philosophical dialogue · Dialogue · Philosophical literature

Thrasymachus

Plato, Republic · 375 BC

★ 8.1

The basis of a democratic state is liberty.

Behold! human beings living in an underground den... Like ourselves... They see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave.

Politics · 350 BC

★ 8.1

Philosophical dialogue · Dialogue · Philosophical literature

Plato, Republic · 375 BC

★ 8.0

We learn an art or craft by doing the things that we shall have to do when we have learnt it.

The Nicomachean Ethics · 322 BC

★ 7.7

Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.

The Nicomachean Ethics · 322 BC

★ 7.7

Where some people are very wealthy and others have nothing, the result will be either extreme democracy or absolute oligarchy, or despotism will come from either of those excesses.

Politics · 350 BC

★ 7.2

This only is denied even to God, The power to make what has been done undone.

Agathon

Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics · 350 BC

★ 7.1

Philosophical literature · Religious literature

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.

Lao Tzu

Tao Te Ching · 400 BC

★ 5.8

Philosophical dialogue · Philosophical literature

The object of education is to teach us to love what is beautiful.

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

Plato, Republic · 375 BC

★ 5.8

Philosophical dialogue · Dialogue · Philosophical literature

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

Plato, Republic · 375 BC

★ 5.7

Philosophical dialogue · Dialogue · Philosophical literature

How, then, might we contrive... One noble lie to persuade if possible the rulers themselves, but failing that the rest of the city?

Plato, Republic · 375 BC

★ 5.7

Philosophical dialogue · Dialogue · Philosophical literature

Friends have all things in common.

Plato, Republic · 375 BC

★ 5.7

Philosophical dialogue · Dialogue · Philosophical literature

Plato

Phaedrus · 370 BC

★ 5.7

The best political community is formed by citizens of the middle class.

Politics · 350 BC

★ 5.7

He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled.

Politics · 335 BC

★ 5.7

The character which results from wealth is that of a prosperous fool.

In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.

Rhetoric · 322 BC

★ 5.7

Scientific literature

The beginning is the most important part of the work.

350 BC

★ 5.6

Philosophical dialogue · Dialogue · Philosophical literature

How many things I can do without!

Plato, Republic · 375 BC

★ 5.0

Biography

Philosophical dialogue · Philosophical literature

Diogenes Laertius, The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers · 399 BC

★ 4.9

It is never right to do wrong or to requite wrong with wrong, or when we suffer evil to defend ourselves by doing evil in return.

Of all wild creatures, the child is the most intractable.

Plato, Crito · 399 BC

★ 4.9

Philosophical dialogue · Dialogue · Philosophical literature

Plato

Laws · 346 BC

★ 4.9

Make war that we may live in peace.

Socrates, he says, breaks the law by corrupting young men and not recognizing the gods that the city recognizes, but some other new deities.

The Nicomachean Ethics · 322 BC

★ 4.9

Courtroom speech · Speech · Philosophical literature

Wealth is the parent of luxury and indolence, and poverty of meanness and viciousness, and both of discontent.

Plato, Apology · 399 BC

★ 4.0

Philosophical dialogue · Dialogue · Philosophical literature

The city in which those who are to rule are least eager to hold office must needs be the best governed and freest from strife.

Plato, Republic · 375 BC

★ 4.0

Philosophical dialogue · Dialogue · Philosophical literature

In the early days of his power, he is full of smiles, and he salutes everyone whom he meets.

Plato, Republic · 375 BC

★ 4.0

Philosophical dialogue · Dialogue · Philosophical literature

Plato, Republic · 375 BC

★ 4.0

The soul is in a way all existing things.

On the Soul · 350 BC

★ 4.0

Nature does nothing without purpose or uselessly.