[486c]
I fancy.”
“What?” “Whether he is quick or slow to learn.
Or do you suppose that anyone could properly love a task which he performed
painfully1 and with
little result2 from much toil?” “That could not
be.” “And if he could not keep what he learned, being
steeped in oblivion,3 could he fail to
be void of knowledge?” “How could he?”
“And so, having all his labor for naught, will he not finally be
constrained to loathe himself and that occupation?”
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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