This quotation, often attributed on the Internet to Plato, cannot be found in any of Plato's writings, nor can it be found in any published work anywhere until recent years. If it really were a quotation by Plato, then some author in the recorded literature of the last several centuries would have mentioned that quote, but they did not. The sentiment isn't new, however. The ancient Roman Seneca, in his work on "Morals," quoted an earlier Roman writer, Lucretius (who wrote about the year 50 B.C.), as saying "we are as much afraid in the light as children in the dark." (Seneca was paraphrasing a longer passage by Lucretius from De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things), Book II, lines 56 et seq.)
Misattributed
“Don't be afraid, child,
The stories are always there.”
Source: The Kiss of Deception
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Mary E. Pearson 58
young-adult fiction writer 1955Related quotes
“The child intuitively comprehends that although these stories are, they are not…”
Source: The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales
Walter Scott, manuscript note written in 1825; cited from J. G. Lockhart The Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart. (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1896) p. 81 col. 2.
Criticism
“As a child, I was more afraid of tetanus shots than, for example, Dracula.”
Column, The Miami Herald, 21 January 1996
Columns and articles
“I regard the afterlife to be a fairy story for people that are afraid of the dark”