Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Understanding plurality requires a unifying principle to make sense of it.
In plain terms
You need one thing to understand many things.
What can you take from it?
Unity is required to understand multiplicity.

Where it applies

  • abstract thinking
  • mathematical reasoning

Putting it to work

  • seek unifying principles
  • simplify complexity

Questions to consider

  • How do you unify complex ideas?
  • Is there always one truth?

Another view

Some philosophies reject the need for unity.

More from Plato

  1. Poetry and philosophy are always hostile to each other.

    Permalink to quote #49
  2. The greatest penalty of evildoing is to grow into the likeness of bad men.

    Permalink to quote #51
  3. If you can discover a better way of life than office-holding for your future rulers, a well-governed city becomes a possibility. For only in such a state will …

    Permalink to quote #48

Related quotes

  1. The term many presupposes the term one, and the term one presupposes the term many.

    Alfred North WhiteheadAlfred North Whitehead quote #31
  2. Common Logic is the Grammar of the higher Speech, that is, of Thought; it examines merely the relations of ideas to one another, the Mechanics of Thought, the …

    NovalisNovalis quote #41
  3. There is one living spirit, prevalent over this world ... which assumes a multitude of forms according to subordinate laws. There is one thinking sensible prin…

    Charles DarwinCharles Darwin quote #1