Q0008

Plato

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

Extreme freedom seems to change into nothing but extreme slavery.
Thinker Plato
School Platonism
Source Republic VIII 564a
Theme Freedom
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Republic VIII 564a, within the tradition of Platonism. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of freedom, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Plato's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Plato. (n.d.). Extreme freedom seems to change into nothing but extreme slavery. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0008

MLA: Plato. “Extreme freedom seems to change into nothing but….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0008.

Chicago: Plato. “Extreme freedom seems to change into nothing but….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0008.

Same thinker

More from Plato

  1. Justice is doing one's own work and not meddling in others'.
  2. Love is the desire for the perpetual possession of the good.
  3. Let us not become haters of argument — that is a great danger to the soul.
  4. Picture human beings as if living in an underground, cave-like dwelling.
  5. First, it always is, and neither comes to be nor perishes.

All quotations by Plato

Same theme

More on freedom

  1. Of things, some are in our power, and some are not.
  2. It is not things that disturb people, but their judgments about things.
  3. He who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave.
  4. If you are distressed by anything external, it is not the thing itself that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it.
  5. To philosophize is to learn how to die.

Browse the freedom theme