Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow... even if that someone is yourself!
PlatoRead
When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing more to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Leaders may create conflicts to maintain their power and distract the populace from their domestic issues.
This quote by Plato suggests that tyrants, once free from external threats, often fabricate wars or conflicts to reinforce their leadership. By creating a situation where the populace feels threatened, they compel the people to look to them for guidance and protection, thereby ensuring their continued dominance and authority over the society.
Themes
TyrantWarLeadershipPowerPolitics
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the nature of political power during a debate on leadership ethics.
More from Plato
All quotes →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
In my afternoon walk I would fain forget all my morning occupations and my obligations to society.
Henry David ThoreauRead
We say that the sun is behind the clouds, but actually it is not the sun but the city from which we view it that is behind the clouds. If we realized that the sun is never behind the clouds we might have a different attitude toward the whole thing.
Chogyam TrungpaRead
Civilization has little to fear from educated people and brain-workers. In them the replacement of religious motives for civilized behaviors by other, secular motives, would proceed unobtrusively. . . .
Sigmund FreudRead
I am a Christian because of that moment on the cross when Jesus, drinking the very dregs of human bitterness, cries out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (I know, I know: he was quoting the Psalms, and who quotes a poem when being tortured? The words aren’t the point. The point is he felt human destitution to its absolute degree; the point is that God is with us, not beyond us, in suffering.)
Christian WimanRead
All of our people all over the country-except the pure-blooded Indians-are immigrants or descendants of immigrants, including even those who came over here on the Mayflower.
Franklin D. RooseveltRead
There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be.
John LennonRead