Plato, Statesman, section 295a

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[295a] will never be able by making laws for all collectively, to provide exactly that which is proper for each individual.

Younger Socrates
Probably not, at any rate.

Stranger
But he will, I fancy, legislate for the majority and in a general way only roughly for individuals, whether he issues written laws or his enactments follow the unwritten traditional customs.

Younger Socrates
Quite right.

Stranger
Yes, quite right. For how could anyone, Socrates,

Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 12 translated by Harold N. Fowler. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.

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