Out of Plato come all things that are still written and debated about among men of thought.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the profound influence of Plato's ideas on contemporary thought.
Ralph Waldo Emerson suggests that Plato's philosophical concepts have laid the groundwork for countless discussions and writings that continue to engage thinkers today. He highlights the enduring relevance of Plato's work in shaping intellectual discourse and its impact on various fields of study.
In practice
This quote would be perfect for a philosophy class to illustrate the impact of historical thinkers.
It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.
The world belongs to the energetic.
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
Only powerful people have liberty.
God is best known in not knowing him.
By nature's kindly disposition most questions which it is beyond a man's power to answer do not occur to him at all.
Utopias now appear much more realizable than one used to think. We are now faced with a different new worry: How to prevent their realization.
As a nation, we may take pride in the fact that we are softhearted; but we cannot afford to be soft-headed.
My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities. I am truly a 'lone traveler' and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart; in the face of all these ties, I have never lost a sense of distance and a need for solitude.
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