Q0322

Plato

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

Every human soul has by nature beheld the things that are.
Thinker Plato
School Platonism
Source Phaedrus 249d
Theme Soul
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Phaedrus 249d, 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 soul, 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.). Every human soul has by nature beheld the things that are. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0322

MLA: Plato. “Every human soul has by nature beheld the….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0322.

Chicago: Plato. “Every human soul has by nature beheld the….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0322.

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. Extreme freedom seems to change into nothing but extreme slavery.
  5. Picture human beings as if living in an underground, cave-like dwelling.

All quotations by Plato

Same theme

More on soul

  1. Withdraw into yourself and look.
  2. This very practice of philosophers is a release and separation of soul from body.
  3. Philosophy is the cultivation of the soul.

Browse the soul theme