QuoteProject
... our purpose in founding our state was not to promote the happiness of a single class, but, so far as possible, of the whole community. Our idea was that we were most likely to justice in such a community, and so be able to decide the question we are trying to answer. We are therefore at the moment trying to construct what we think is a happy community by securing the happiness not of a select minority, but of a whole.
Plato
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote emphasizes the importance of collective happiness over the happiness of a privileged few.

Plato's quote articulates the philosophy that a just society should strive to promote the well-being of the entire community rather than catering to the needs of a select group. It suggests that true justice and happiness can only be achieved when all members of society are considered, thereby fostering a sense of unity and equality.

Themes

CommunityHappinessJusticePhilosophySociety

In practice

Example use cases

This quote could be used in a speech about community service to emphasize inclusivity.

More from Plato

Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow... even if that someone is yourself!
PlatoRead
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.
PlatoRead
...for the object of education is to teach us to love beauty.
PlatoRead
Pleasure is the greatest incentive to evil.
PlatoRead
Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety.
PlatoRead
Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence.
PlatoRead

Similar quotes

Don't minimize the importance of luck in determining life's course.
Alex TrebekRead
Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality.
Lord ActonRead
To be a human being is to be in a state of tension between your appetites and your dreams, and the social realities around you and your obligations to your fellow man.
John UpdikeRead
Yes, of course, there's something fishy about describing people's feelings. You try hard to be accurate, but as soon as you start to define such and such a feeling, language lets you down. It's really a machine for making falsehoods. When we really speak the truth, words are insufficient. Almost everything except things like "pass the gravy" is a lie of a sort. And that being the case, I shall shut up. Oh, and... pass the gravy.
Iris MurdochRead
Slavery is so intolerable a condition that the slave can hardly escape deluding himself into thinking that he is choosing to obey his master's commands when, in fact, he is obliged to. Most slaves of habit suffer from this delusion and so do some writers, enslaved by an all too personal style.
W. H. AudenRead
...the only thing that makes the Church endurable is that it is somehow the body of Christ and that on this we are fed. It seems to be a fact that you have to suffer as much from the Church as for it but if you believe in the divinity of Christ, you have to cherish the world at the same time that you struggle to endure it.
Flannery O'ConnorRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.