Plato

“from fair forms to fair practices, and from fair practices to fair notions, until from fair notions he arrives at the notion of absolute beauty, and at last knows what the essence of beauty is.”

“For not by art does the poet sing, but by power divine.”

“The tragic poet is an imitator, and therefore, like all other imitators, he is thrice removed from the king and from the truth.”

“Behold! human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den.”

“Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and political greatness and wisdom meet in one, cities will never have rest from their evils.”

“He sets in order his own inner life, and is his own master and his own law, and at peace with himself; and when he has bound together the three principles within him, which may be compared to the higher, lower, and middle notes of the scale.”