Platonic Quotes

“I have observed, indeed, generally, that while in protestant countries the defections from the Platonic Christianity of the priests is to Deism, in catholic countries they are to Atheism. Diderot, D'Alembert, D’Holbach, Condorcet, are known to have been among the most virtuous of men. Their virtue, then, must have had some other foundation than the love of God.

[Letter to Thomas Law, 13 June 1814]”
― Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson

“Harry and Hermione are very platonic friends. But I won't answer for anyone else, nudge-nudge wink-wink!”
― J. K. Rowling

“I hope it is not necessary for me to stress the platonic nature of our relationship- not platonic in the purest sense, there was no philosophical discourse, but we certainly didn't fuck, which is usually what people mean by platonic; which I bet would really piss Plato off, that for all his thinking and chatting his name has become an adjective for describing sexless trysts.”
― Russell Brand, My Booky Wook

“And those who only know the non-platonic love have no need to talk of tragedy. In such love there can be no sort of tragedy.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

“I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.”
― Simonides

“καὶ οὗτος ἄρα καὶ ἄλλος πᾶς ὁ ἐπιθυμῶν τοῦ μὴ ἐτοίμου ἐπιθυμεῖ”
― Plato, The Symposium

“In science there is and will remain a Platonic element which could not be taken away without ruining it. Among the infinite diversity of singular phenomena science can only look for invariants.”
― Jacques Monod, Chance and Necessity: An Essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modern Biology

“I am bold to Say that neither you nor I, will live to See the Course which 'the Wonders of the Times' will take. Many Years, and perhaps Centuries must pass, before the current will acquire a Settled direction... yet Platonic, Pythagoric, Hindoo, and cabalistic Christianity, which is Catholic Christianity, and which has prevailed for 1,500 years, has received a mortal wound, of which the monster must finally die. Yet so strong is his constitution, that he may endure for centuries before he expires.

{Letter to Thomas Jefferson, July 16 1814}”
― John Adams, The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson & Abigail & John Adams

“Sometimes you just look at a person in that moment and think yes, they're going to be important to me. They're going to change the shape my life takes. We're going to mean something to each other.
This is the feeling I get as I watch Brigid try to fold an entire meat-lover's pizza in half, give up, and stack four slices directly on top of one another to shove them into her mouth.”
― Kristen O'Neal, Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses

“I imagine you dream of me on the nights I dream of you. I'm always so confused by the platonic way we enjoy each other’s company. We talk about so many things that I can't recall when I wake up. How did you get me pregnant last night? We never touch in my dreams.”
― Crystal Woods, Write like no one is reading 2

“Fusing the doctrines of Plotinus and Proclus with the creeds and beliefs of Christianity, Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite combined the Neo-Platonic conviction of the fundamental oneness and luminous aliveness of the world with the Christian dogmas of the triune God, original sin and redemption. The universe is created, animated and unified by the perpetual self-realization of what Plotinus had called "the One," what the Bible had called "the Lord," and what he calls "the superessential Light.”
― erwin panofsky, Meaning in the Visual Arts

“It may be vain and wrong to say it, but- I'm afraid- Laurie is getting too fond of me.

Then you don't care for him in the way it is evident he begins to care for you? And Mrs March looked anxious as she put the question.

Mercy, no! I love the dear boy, as I always have, and am immensely proud of him, but as for anything more, it's out of the question.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

“Euclid's Elements has been for nearly twenty-two centuries the encouragement and guide of that scientific thought which is one thing with the progress of man from a worse to a better state. The encouragement; for it contained a body of knowledge that was really known and could be relied on, and that moreover was growing in extent and application. For even at the time this book was written—shortly after the foundation of the Alexandrian Museum—Mathematics was no longer the merely ideal science of the Platonic school, but had started on her career of conquest over the whole world of Phenomena. The guide; for the aim of every scientific student of every subject was to bring his knowledge of that subject into a form as perfect as that which geometry had attained. Far up on the great mountain of Truth, which all the sciences hope to scale, the foremost of that sacred sisterhood was seen, beckoning for the rest to follow her.”
― William Kingdon Clifford, Lectures and Essays by the Late William Kingdon Clifford, F.R.S.

“She made him sad, but he also longed for this sorrow to arrive in his room as often as possible in that ascetic uniform of long top and jeans, the cassock of her platonic detachment.”
― Manu Joseph, Serious Men

“We don't agree and we never shall, so we'll be good friends all our lives, but we won't go and do anything rash.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

“What was that? Valentine's Day? Her heart gave a little skip at the thought, she had never spent it in a romantic way before, usually the day meant sending and receiving cute Cupid cards and heart shaped sugar candies, but it was all in a platonic celebration of friendship. This time, it would not be like that, it would be ... special.”
― E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly,

“How stupid you are child! He meant you of course.

Did he? And Jo opened her eyes as if the thought had never occurred to her before.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

“It would trouble me sadly to make him unhappy, for I couldn't fall in love with the dear old fellow merely out of gratitude, could I?”
― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

“I don't. I never wanted to make you care for me so, and I went away to keep you from it if I could.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

“Many a man does not have a girlfriend, yet a girlfriend has him.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“I was telling the couples therapists that I thought she was cheating, they were telling me she was a modern woman with platonic male friends. Years later the numerous affairs emerged!”
― Steven Magee

“Linden.” Ingrid cut through his words, letting her fingers reach through the bars as far as they would go. “I’ll always want to see you.” She smiled sadly, knowing the words were true but in a different way than they might have been once before. He was not the warmth in her cheeks or the heavy rush in her chest, he was not an embrace to come home to or even a person she really knew, but he was Linden, and she didn’t think there would come a time when she didn’t feel just a little joy to see his face.”
― Rosiee Thor, Fire Becomes Her