QuoteProject
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?
Plato
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote questions the nature of reality and how we know if we are awake or dreaming.

In this quote, Plato prompts us to reflect on the distinction between reality and illusion. He raises profound questions about our perception of existence, inviting us to consider how we can ascertain the truth of our experiences. This philosophical inquiry delves into the roots of knowledge and consciousness, challenging us to contemplate the reliability of our thoughts and the nature of our awareness.

Themes

RealityDreamPhilosophyAwarenessConsciousness

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a philosophical debate about the nature of reality.

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

Raw hatred took its time making an outpost of its rage and prepared for me a savage crown with rusty, bloodstained spikes. It wasn't pride that made me keep my heart at a distance from such terror, nor did I waste on revenge or the pursuit of power the forces that came from my selfish griefs or my accumulated joys. It was something else-my helplessness.
Pablo NerudaRead
I firmly believe a great many prayers are not answered because we are not willing to forgive someone.
Dwight L. MoodyRead
Nature has planted in our minds an insatiable longing to see the truth.
Marcus Tullius CiceroRead
A prayer that must have a cannon behind it better never be uttered. Forgiveness ought not to go in partnership with shot and shell. Love need not carry knives and revolvers.
Robert Green IngersollRead
I never yet heard of a useless thing that was not ground out of existence by evolution sooner or later. Did you? And pain gets needless.
H. G. WellsRead
It is incredible how as soon as a people become subject, it promptly falls into such complete forgetfulness of its freedom that it can hardly be roused to the point of regaining it, obeying so easily and willingly that one is led to say that this people has not so much lost its liberty as won its enslavement.
Etienne De La BoetieRead

A little wisdom, now and then

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