But he who without the divine madness comes to the doors of the Muses, confident that he will be a good poet by art, meets with no success, and the poetry of the sane man vanishes into nothingness before that of the inspired madmen. All these noble results of inspired madness I can mention, and many more. Therefore let us not be afraid on that point, and let no one disturb and frighten us by saying that the reasonable friend should be preferred to him who is in a frenzy. Let him show in addition that love is not sent from heaven for the advantage of lover and beloved alike, and we will grant him the prize of victory. First, then, we must learn the truth about the soul divine and human by observing how it acts and is acted upon.
Every soul is immortal.
For that which is ever moving is immortal but that which moves something else or is moved by something else, when it ceases to move, ceases to live. But the beginning is ungenerated. Thus that which moves itself must be the beginning of motion. But since that which is moved by itself has been seen to be immortal, one who says that this self-motion is the essence and the very idea of the soul, will not be disgraced.