Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow... even if that someone is yourself!
PlatoRead
Democracy passes into despotism.
Interpretation
Democracy can lead to authoritarianism if not carefully maintained.
This quote by Plato suggests that democracy, while a desirable form of governance, can deteriorate into despotism if the principles and processes that support it are neglected. It highlights the fragility of democratic systems and the need for vigilance to protect the freedoms and rights of individuals.
In practice
During a lecture on political philosophy, one might use this quote to discuss the vulnerabilities of democratic systems.
Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow... even if that someone is yourself!
Not one of them who took up in his youth with this opinion that there are no gods ever continued until old age faithful to his conviction.
...for the object of education is to teach us to love beauty.
Pleasure is the greatest incentive to evil.
Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety.
Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence.
Defense is superior to opulence.
Yes, know thyself: in great concerns or small, be this thy care, for this, my friend, is all.
Drunkenness is temporary suicide.
The future will be like the past, in the sense that, no matter how amazing or technologically advanced a society becomes, the basic human rhythm of petty malevolence, sordid moneygrubbing, and official violence, illuminated by occasional bursts of loyalty or desire or tenderness, will go on.
War can only be qualified by its object, and there is neither foreign war nor civil war, there is only just or unjust war.
Iβve always liked the feeling of traveling light; there is something in me that wants to feel I could leave wherever I am, at any time, without any effort. The idea of being weighed down made me uneasy, as if I lived on the surface of a frozen lake and each new trapping of domestic life - a pot, a chair, a lamp - threatened to be the thing that sent me through the ice.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.