Buyer What country are you of? Pythagoras Samos. Buyer Where were you educated? Pythagoras In Egypt, among the sages there. Buyer Well, then, if I buy you what will you teach me? Pythagoras I will not teach you anything. I will remind you. Buyer How will you remind me? Pythagoras By first making your soul clean, and washing off the filth that is on it. Buyer Now, suppose me already purified, what is your method of reminding? Pythagoras The first step is a long, speechless silence; you must not say a word for five whole years. Buyer You ought to teach mutes, my friend. But I am a talker with no desire to become a graven image. All the same, what comes after the silence and the five-year term? Pythagoras Practise in music and geometry. Buyer That is a nice statement! If I am to become a philosopher I must first learn to play the harp!