and associate yourself with the wisest of those who are about you and send for the wisest
 men from abroad whenever this is possible. And do not imagine that you can afford to be
 ignorant of anyone either of the famous poets or of the sages; rather you should listen to
 the poets and learn from the sages and so equip your mind to judge those who are inferior
 and to emulate those who are superior to yourself; for it is through this training that
 you can soonest become such a man as we have assumed that one must be who is to perform
 properly the duties of a king, and to govern the state as he should. But The passage here to 39 is quoted in a somewhat
 abbreviated form in Isoc. 15.73 . the strongest
 challenge to your task you will find in yourself, if only you consider it monstrous that
 the worse should rule the better, Cf. Isoc. 3.14 ff. and that the more foolish should give orders to men of
 greater wisdom; for the more vigorously you condemn folly in others, the more diligently
 will you train your own understanding.