The Republic Politics Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Stephanus pagination (the standardized way in which every text of Plato is divided). Every edition and translation will have this pagination in the margins.

Quote #7

"...women, therefore, also must be chosen to live and guard with such men, since they are competent and akin to the men in their nature." (456b)

Socrates's guardians may be elitist, but there's also some major gender equality going on among them. That's pretty amazing for a work written thousands of years ago.

Quote #8

"[The crew doesn't] know that for the true pilot it is necessary to pay careful attention to year, seasons, heaven, stars, winds, and everything that's proper to the art, if he is really going to be skilled at ruling a ship." (488d)

In this image of a mutinous crew, Socrates compares the philosophical king with his many years of learning to a skilled pilot with his many years of training: both have worked really hard to get where they are—and neither gets much credit for it.

Quote #9

"Then our job as founders... is to compel the best natures to go to the study which we were saying before is the greatest, to see the good and to go up that ascent..." (519c)

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of... the good? Socrates believes that the best city should be all about encouraging its citizens to strive for moral excellence above all. It's the pursuit of the good that actually leads to happiness, in Socrates's view.