The Republic

By Plato

Words from the achiever

“The passion roused by a Plato can have no second. Not even poetry. He was such a great writer! He wrote the most beautiful prose and beautifully inspiring ideas. It sounds silly to use ordinary words when you get a genius like Plato, but he could think his way around all the plots and describe people and their characters at the same time. He created Socrates. Socrates was an unknown person, but he was made alive by this man’s creativity. Now, I do not understand the finer points of Plato. It gets me down, but the comedies, the shorter dialogues can keep you going for a long, long time. In a way it’s like reading the Bible. It becomes so much part of your way of looking at the world that you don’t realize it. I just felt moved by reading Plato and, I confess, didn’t understand it, but he seemed a wise man, saying great things and saying them beautifully.”

About the book

A new translation by Robin Waterfield of the Greek philosopher’s matchless study of morality, happiness, justice and government.