The Republic Quotes

Quote 1: "Age isn't easy for a good man if he's poor, nor will a bad man ever be cheerful with himself even if he's rich." Book 1, pg. 3, line 332

Quote 2: "It keeps him from having to leave life in the fear of owing debts to men or sacrifices to the gods." Book 1, pg. 5, line 331b

Quote 3: "No knowledge considers or prescribes for the advantage of the stronger, but for that of the weaker, which it rules" Book 1, pg. 17, line 342d

Quote 4: that "a just man tries to get the better of his unlike, but not of his like; and unjust man tries to get the better of both." Book 1, pg. 24, line 349d

Quote 5: "What sort of thing is justice compared with injustice?" Book 1, pg. 26, line 351

Quote 6: "It concerns the way we ought to live." Book 1, pg. 28, line 352d

Quote 7: "The arduous things that ought to be shunned for themselves but pursued for profit and a reputation based on appearance." Book 2, pg. 31, line 358

Quote 8: "Justice is practiced only under compulsion, as someone else's good - not our own." Book 2, pg. 33, line 360c

Quote 9: "The unjust man enjoys life better than the just" Book 2, pg. 35, line 362c

Quote 10: "To become a good guardian, a man must be by nature fast, strong, and a spirited philosopher." Book 2, pg. 48, line 376e

Quote 11: "God is the cause only of good." Book 2, pg. 52, line 380c

Quote 12: "The gods shall not be misrepresented as sorcerers who change their shapes or as liars who mislead us in word or deed." Book 2, pg. 54, line 383

Quote 13: "No serious friendship should give even the appearance of going beyond that, to avoid reproaches of lack of education and taste." Book 3, pg. 73, line 403c

Quote 14: "Variety in poetry breeds self-indulgence; in gymnastics, disease: simplicity there puts temperance in the soul; here it puts health in the body." Book 3, pg. 74, line 404e

Quote 15: "Make sure that the city is neither small nor seemingly great, but sufficient and one." Book 4, pg. 90, line 423c

Quote 16: "Power to preserve under all circumstances the right, lawful opinion of what is and is not to be feared" Book 4, pg. 97, line 430

Quote 17: "The desires of the worthless many are controlled by the desires and knowledge of the decent few" Book 4, pg. 98, line 431d

Quote 18: "A person's desires force him to something to reason and he berates himself and gets indignant with the part that forces him, and his spirit allies with reason as though reason and desire were at civil war." Book 4, pg. 107, line 440

Quote 19: "Spirited part preserves through both pleasures and pains the commands of reason about what is and is not to be feared." Book 4, pg. 110, line 442c

Quote 20: "Justice, although it resembles a mirage, is really concerned with internal rather than external activity - with the true self and its business." Book 4, pg. 111, line 443c

Quote 21: Justice is "establishing the parts of the soul so that they dominate and are dominated by each other according to nature, injustice so that they rule and are ruled contrary to nature." Book 4, pg. 112, line 444d

Quote 22: "Each person must tend to the business that accords with his nature." Book 5, pg. 117, line 453b

Quote 23: "The various talents are scattered throughout both sexes, and by nature women take part in all pursuits, as do men, except that in all of them the women is weaker." Book 5, pg. 120, line 455c

Quote 24: "The helpful is beautiful; only the harmful is ugly." Book 5, pg. 122, line 457b

Quote 25: "Shame forbids molesting a parent, and fear warns that the others will rush to the victim's defense as his sons, brothers and fathers." Book 5, pg. 130, line 465b

Quote 26: "Until either philosophers become kings or those now kings and regents become genuine philosophers." Book 5, pg. 138, line 473c

Quote 27: "Philosophers are the ones who can reach what always stays the same in every respect, and non-philosophers the ones who cannot, who wonder among the many things that go in every direction." Book 6, pg. 146, line 484

Quote 28: "Evil is more opposed to the good than to the no-good" Book 6, pg. 154, line 491d

Quote 29: and "great crimes and pure evil come only from vigorous natures perverted by upbringing; a weak nature never does anything great, good or evil." Book 6, pg. 154, line 491e

Quote 30: "[E]ngage in adolescent philosophy and education as boys and young men, and give special attention to their bodies as they grow up, to acquire a helper for philosophy. As the soul begins to mature with the passing years, tighten up its exercise, and when their strength declines and exempts them from military and political duties, then be turned out to pasture to do nothing - except as a sideline - but practice philosophy, if they're to live happily here and crown their lives when they die with their fitting portion over there." Book 6, pg. 160, line 498b

Quote 31: "When it rests on the place lit by truth and what is, it perceives it and knows it and seems to have intelligence. But in the place mingled with darkness, the region of becoming and passing away it darkens and conjectures, changes its opinions up and down and now appears to have no intelligence." Book 6, pg.170, line 508d

Quote 32: "[M]en like that would firmly believe truth to be the shadows of the artificial objects." Book 7, pg. 176, line 515c

Quote 33: "The upward journey and the viewing of the upward world as the soul's ascent to the intelligible." Book 7, pg. 177, line 517b

Quote 34: "A city whose future rulers are the least eager to rule will necessarily be the best governed and freest from strife, and the one with opposite rulers the worst." Book 7, pg. 181, line 520d

Quote 35: "He turned the rule of his soul over to its victory-loving, middle, spirited part and became a high-minded lover of honor." Book 8, pg. 208, line 550b

Quote 36: "Whether or not they're seen for what they are by all gods and men" Book 9, pg. 238, line 580c

Quote 37: "[W]hich more fully is: something that partakes of the laws alike, immortal and true, is that way itself, and appears in things like that, or something that partakes of and appear in the never alike and mortal, and is that way itself?" Book 9, pg. 243, line 585c

Quote 38: "The 'phantom' of a tyrant's pleasure must then be a plane number measured on its length - Which raised to its second and then to its third power, will clearly give the distance." Book 9, pg. 246, line 587d

Quote 39: "[I]mitation lies far from the truth and can make all things because it captures only a tiny bit of each one, and that but a phantom." Book 10, pg. 255, line 598b

Quote 40: "When they had been on the meadow seven days, they must get up and march on the eighth, arriving after four more from where they beheld a straight line, like a pillar, stretched from above, all through heaven and earth, most like the rainbow, but purer and brighter. Book 10, pg. 273, line 616b