"Why, that all those mercenary individuals, whom the many call 
    Sophists and whom they deem to be their adversaries, do, in 
    fact, teach nothing but the opinion of the many, that is to 
    say, the opinions of their assemblies; and this is their 
    wisdom."

   "Good he pronounces to be that in which the beast delights and 
    evil to be that which he dislikes; and he can give no other 
    account of them except that the just and noble are the 
    necessary, having never himself seen, and having no power of 
    explaining to others the nature of either, or the difference 
    between them, which is immense."

   "And in what way does he who thinks that wisdom is the 
    discernment of the tempers and tastes of the motley multitude,
    whether in painting or music, or, finally, in politics, differ
    from him whom I have been describing?  For when a man consorts
    with the many, and exhibits to them his poem or other work of 
    art or the service which he has done the State, making them 
    his judges when he is not obliged, the so-called necessity of 
    Diomede will oblige him to produce whatever they praise."



   "The poet is like a painter who, as we have already observed, 
    will make a likeness of a cobbler though he understands nothing 
    of cobbling; and his picture is good enough for those who know 
    no more than he does, and judge only by colors and figures."

   "...the excellence or beauty or truth of every structure, animate 
    or inanimate, and of every action of man, is relative to the use 
    for which nature or the artist has intended them."

   "...the imitative poet who aims at being popular is not by 
    nature made, nor is his art intended, to please or to affect the 
    rational principle in the soul; but he will prefer the passionate 
    and fitful temper, which is easily imitated."



   "Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of 
    this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and 
    political greatness and wisdom meet in one, and those 
    commoner natures who pursue either to the exclusion of 
    the other are compelled to stand aside, cities will never 
    have rest from their evils -- no, nor the human race, as 
    I believe -- and then only will this our State have a 
    possibility of life and behold the light of day."

   "The judge should not be young; he should have learned to 
    know evil, not from his own soul, but from late and long 
    observation of the nature of evil in others: knowledge 
    should be his guide, not personal experience."

   "Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the 
    body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion
    obtains no hold on the mind."

    - Plato, The Republic

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