Republic Quotes

“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”
― Plato, The Republic

“The beginning is the most important part of the work.”
― Plato, The Republic

“In the present case it is a little inaccurate to say I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible to any public office of trust or profit in the Republic. But I do not repine, for I am a subject of it only by force of arms.”
― H.L. Mencken

“An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.”
― Plutarch

“In the republic of mediocrity, genius is dangerous.”
― Robert G. Ingersoll

“The philosopher whose dealings are with divine order himself acquires the characteristics of order and divinity.”
― Plato, The Republic

“... when someone sees a soul disturbed and unable to see something, he won't laugh mindlessly, but he'll take into consideration whether it has come from a brighter life and is dimmed through not having yet become accustomed to the dark or whether it has come from greater ignorance into greater light and is dazzled by the increased brillance.”
― Plato, The Republic

“…money and honour have no attraction for them; good men do not wish to be openly demanding payment for governing and so to get the name of hirelings, nor by secretly helping themselves out of the public revenues to get the name of thieves. And not being ambitious they do not care about honour. Wherefore necessity must be laid upon them, and they must be induced to serve from the fear of punishment. And this, as I imagine, is the reason why the forwardness to take office, instead of waiting to be compelled, has been deemed dishonourable. Now the worst part of the punishment is that he who refuses to rule is liable to be ruled by one who is worse than himself. And the fear of this, as I conceive, induces the good to take office, not because they would, but because they cannot help — not under the idea that they are going to have any benefit or enjoyment themselves, but as a necessity, and because they are not able to commit the task of ruling to any one who is better than themselves, or indeed as good. For there is reason to think that if a city were composed entirely of good men, then to avoid office would be as much an object of contention as to obtain office is at present…”
― Socrates

“for PEOPLE to rule themselves in a REPUBLIC , they must have virtue;for a TYRANT to rule in a TYRANNY ,he must use FEAR.”
― William J Federer, Change to Chains-The 6,000 Year Quest for Control -Volume I-Rise of the Republic

“My African roots made me what I am today. They’re the reason I’m from the Dominican Republic. They’re the reason I exist at all. To these roots I owe everything.”
― Junot Díaz

“While this America settles in the mould of its vulgarity,
heavily thickening to empire, I
And protest, only a bubble in the molten mass, pops
and sighs out, and the mass hardens,

I sadly smiling remember that the flower fades to make
fruit, the fruit rots to make earth.
Qut of the mother; and through the spring exultances,
ripeness and decadence; and home to the mother.

You making haste haste on decay: not blameworthy; life
is good, be it stubbornly long or suddenly
A mortal splendor: meteors are not needed less than
mountains: shine, perishing republic.

But for my children. I would have them keep their dis-
tance from the thickening center; corruption.
Never has been compulsory, when the cities lie at the
monster’s feet there are left the mountajns.

And boys, be in nothing so moderate as in love of man,
a clever servant, insufferable master.
There is the trap that catches noblest spirits, that caught
-–they say--God, when he walked on earth.”
― Robinson Jeffers, Selected Poems

“We've heard many people say and have often said ourselves that justice is doing one's own work and not meddling with what isn't one's own ... Then, it turns out that this doing one's own work-provided that it comes to be in a certain way-is justice.”
― Plato, The Republic

“As the nation divided into Federalists and Republicans, each group called the other the worst name possible: "party". Most Americans feared the idea of party; believing that a society should unite to achieve the public good, they denounced parties as groups of ambitious men selfishly competing for power. Worse, parties were danger signals for a republic; if parties dominated a republic's politics, its days were numbered.”
― R.B. Bernstein, Thomas Jefferson

“God grant that men of principle shall be our principal men.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“«Ἀνάγκης θυγατρός κόρης Λαχέσεως λόγος. Ψυχαὶ ἐφήμεροι, ἀρχὴ ἂλλης περιόδου θνητοῦ γένους θανατηφόρου. Οὐχ ὑμᾶς δαίμων λήξεται, ἀλλ’ ὑμεῖς δαίμονα αἱρήσεσθε. Πρῶτος δ’ ὁ λαχών πρῶτος αἱρείσθω βίον ᾧ συνέσται ἐξ ἀνάγκης. Ἀρετὴ δὲ ἀδέσποτον, ἣν τιμῶν καὶ ἀτιμάζων πλέον καὶ ἒλαττον αὐτῆς ἓκαστος ἓξει. Αἰτία ἑλομένου. θεὸς ἀναίτιος.»”
― Plato

“At heart, American conservatives like myself are believers in the Constitution. We believe that the principles embodied in the Constitution are enduring, and that to whatever extent we deviate from them we put our liberties at risk. Our views are consistent because we believe in absolute truths and the essential soundness, even righteousness, of the Founder's vision of government.”
― Sean Hannity, Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty over Liberalism

“A representative owes not just his industry but his judgement”
― Edmund Burke

“In examining the division of powers, as established by the Federal Constitution, remarking on the one hand the portion of sovereignty which has been reserved to the several States, and on the other, the share of power which has been given to the Union, it is evident that the Federal legislators entertained very clear and accurate notions respecting the centralization of government. The United States form not only a republic, but a confederation; yet the national authority is more centralized there than it was in several of the absolute monarchies of Europe....”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

“For, let me tell you that the more the pleasures of the body fade away, the greater to me are the pleasure and charm of conversation.”
― Plato, Republic, Books 1-5

“Und nicht wahr, wenn man ihn zwänge, in das Licht selbst zu sehen, so würde er Schmerzen an den Augen haben, davonlaufen und sich wieder jenen Schattengegenständen zuwenden, die er ansehen kann, und würde dabei bleiben, diese wären wirklich deutlicher als die, welche er gezeigt bekam?

And if he is compelled to look straight at the light, will he not have a pain in his eyes which will make him turn away to take and take in the objects of vision which he can see, and which he will conceive to be in reality clearer than the things which are now being shown to him?”
― Plato, The Republic

“True equality, true acceptance and appreciation of each other,
true freedom,
may be the scariest thing.

Do we have the capability as a country to opt for it,
for enough of us to opt for it
to get it despite all the historical impediments?”
― Shellen Lubin

“the just does not desire more than his like but more than his unlike, whereas the unjust desires more than both his like and unlike”
― Plato, The Republic

“Surely the gods are just?"

"Granted that they are."

"But if so, the unjust will be the enemy of the gods, and the just will be their friend?”
― Plato, The Republic

“The factor that contributed most to the demise of the Republic was not, in fact, the war, but rampant self-interest. Endemic to the political process our ancestors engineered, the insidious pursuit of self-enrichment grew only more pervasive through the long centuries, and in the end left the body politic feckless and corrupt. Consider the self-interest of the Core Worlds, unwavering in their exploitation of the Outer Systems for resources; the Outer Systems themselves, undermined by their permissive disregard of smuggling and slavery; those ambitious members of the Senate who sought only status and opportunity.”
― James Luceno, Tarkin

“My father would take me into the voting booth with him
when I was little.
He also took me house to house raising
Dollars for Democrats.
He was gone by the time I turned 30,
but I feel him with me every time I vote,
even if there's no booth anymore
and no lever to pull to ensure privacy.

I took my mother to vote every single election
after she stopped driving,
even when she was in an assisted living residence.
Never would we pass up the opportunity to vote.”
― Shellen Lubin

“We are not the only country that becomes
way more
progressive or regressive
depending on who gets into office.
This is the way of the world.

Your vote matters.

Whatever your reasons,
whatever your objections,
you're not a part of our political process
unless you vote.

All politics is local,
all politics is national,
all politics is global.”
― Shellen Lubin

“the more honour they assign to wealth the less honour they assign to excellence. Or isn’t this how excellence contrasts with wealth, as if they were each being weighed on a balance that is constantly inclining in opposite directions?”
― Plato

“القرارات الجمهورية قرارات إلهية، لا استئناف فيها ولا نقض ولا إبرام”
― مصطفى أمين, سنة رابعة سجن

“For Schopenhauer, there is only one underlying reality; for Kant, there are things in themselves as a plurality. The difference is singularity against plurality (diversity). But this difference may be only on the surface, for it is hard to imagine that Kant thought of noumenon (if equated to a thing in itself) as of plurality, but rather that things in themselves are not differentiated in the noumenon as they are in the world of phenomena for these phenomena are only particular, phenomenal manifestations of the One—Noumenon (although this may not be the case with Plato). Let’s think deeper about Plato’s idea of noumenon. We may conclude that, although on a superficial level, noumenon may contain plurality, when we look deeper, we may conclude that Plato’s noumenon is singularity too. Regardless of the description and explanation in the Republic, Plato’s noumenon is or may be the undifferentiated One. The idea that the world we see and the things in it are only the shadows of an underlying reality or noumena does not necessarily mean that all these things have their literal equivalents in the noumenon. In the end, there seems to be less difference between Plato’s forms (ideas) and Kant’s things in themselves than it looks like on the surface. Still, noumenon, although being a singularity, being the One and universal underlying reality, contains plurality as a potential.”
― Dejan Stojanovic, ABSOLUTE

“Adapting certain features of Empedoclean daimonology, Plato formulated a more rigorous theory of daimonification through virtue. He daimonified the soldiers of his ideal republic for their courage, and daimonified rulers (“guardians”) for their wisdom. In his Cratylus, Plato vouched for the daimonification of all people who were noble and wise. Plato’s Timaeus introduced the ultimate democratic principle of daimonification by identifying one’s guardian daimon with humanity’s higher consciousness (or nous).”
― Carl William Brown, Applied Daimonology. Principles and essays.