"But hear the judgment which the principal, and most unhappy of them, passed on the artists and learned men of his day. “I have considered the poets,” says he, “and I look upon them as people whose talents impose both on themselves and on others; they give themselves out for wise men, and are taken for such; but in reality they are anything sooner than that.” “From the poets,” continues Socrates, “I turned to the artists. Nobody was more ignorant of the arts than myself; nobody was more fully persuaded that the artists were possessed of amazing knowledge. I soon discovered, however, that they were in as bad a way as the poets, and that both had fallen into the same misconception. Because the most skilful of them excel others in their particular jobs, they think themselves wiser than all the rest of mankind. This arrogance spoilt all their skill in my eyes, so that, putting myself in the place of the oracle, and asking myself whether I would rather be what I am or what they are, know what they know, or know that I know nothing, I very readily answered, for myself and the god, that I had rather remain as I am."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Discourse_on_the_Arts_and_Sciences
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Discourse on the Arts and Sciences
33 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Discourse on the Arts and Sciences →
Related Quotes
"I foresee that I shall not readily be forgiven for having taken up the position I have adopted. Setting myself up aga…"
"It is a noble and beautiful spectacle to see man raising himself, so to speak, from nothing by his own exertions; dis…"
"So long as government and law provide for the security and well-being of men in their common life, the arts, literatu…"
"Necessity raised up thrones; the arts and sciences have made them strong. Powers of the earth, cherish all talents an…"
"Richness of apparel may proclaim the man of fortune,and elegance the man of taste; but true health and manliness are …"
"Before art had moulded our behaviour, and taught our passions to speak an artificial language, our morals were rude b…"
"In our day, now that more subtle study and a more refined taste have reduced the art of pleasing to a system, there p…"
"Not all the eloquence of Demosthenes could breathe life into a body which luxury and the arts had once enervated."
"Rome, once the shrine of virtue, became the theatre of vice, a scorn among the nations, and an object of derision eve…"
"The following pages contain a discussion of one of the most sublime and interesting of all moral questions. It is not…"