With these examples before you, you should aspire to nobility of character, and not only abide by what I have said, but acquaint yourself with the best things in the poets as well, and learn from the other wise men also any useful lessons they have taught.Cf. Isoc. 2.13.

For just as we see the bee settling on all the flowers, and sipping the best from each, so also those who aspire to culture ought not to leave anything untasted, but should gather useful knowledge from every source.The figure is used by Lucretius in the same sense, iii. 11-12: floriferis ut apes in saltibus omnia libant,/omnia nos itidem depascimur aurea dicta. For hardly even with these pains can they overcome the defects of nature.