The Erotic Essay (36-40)

Now you must not fall into any of these errors but rather seek to discover what is of supreme consequence in human affairs, and what it is that turning out well would do us the most good, but turning out badly would hurt us most along life’s pathway. For it requires no proof that upon this factor we must expend the greatest care, which more than anything else possesses the power to tip the scale to one side or the other.

Now of the powers residing in human beings we shall find that intelligence leads all the rest and that philosophy alone is capable of educating this rightly and training it. In this study I think you ought to participate, and not balk at or flee from the labors involved in it, reflecting that through idleness and indolence even quite superficial things become difficult, while through persistence and diligence none of the worthwhile things is unattainable,

and that of all things the most irrational is to be ambitious for wealth, bodily strength, and such things, and for their sakes to submit to many hardships, all of which prizes are perishable and usually slaves to intelligence, but not to aim at the improvement of the mind, which has supervision over all other powers, abides continually with those who possess it, and guides the whole life.[*]

And yet, although it is a fine thing to be admired among high-minded people even on account of fortuitous success, it is much finer through care bestowed upon one’s self to gain a share in all the accomplishments that are esteemed; for often it has fallen to the lot of vulgar men to share in the former but none have a part in the latter except those who excel in real manliness.

However, touching the subject of philosophy, some future occasion will afford me more suitable opportunities to review carefully the particulars, but the outlines of it nothing will prevent me from running over at once. This one point, therefore, you must grasp clearly at the outset, that all education consists in understanding something and then putting it into practice,[*] and this is even more true of philosophy than of any other studies, for the synthesis of learning and practice is likely to be more perfect in proportion as the instructors are more clear on this point.