[489c]
and everyone who needs to be
governed1 to the door of the man who knows how to govern,
not that the ruler should implore his natural subjects to let themselves be
ruled, if he is really good for anything.2 But you
will make no mistake in likening our present political rulers to the sort of
sailors we are just describing, and those whom these call useless and
star-gazing ideologists to the true pilots.” “Just
so,” he said. “Hence, and under these conditions, we
cannot expect that the noblest pursuit should be highly esteemed by those
whose way of life is quite the contrary.
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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