The First Speech of Socrates Socrates. But people imagine that they know about the nature of things, when they don't know about them, and, not having come to an understanding at first because they think that they know, they end, as might be expected, in contradicting one another and themselves. Every one sees that love is a desire, and we know also that non-lovers desire the beautiful and good. Now excess has many names, and many members, and many forms, and any of these forms when very marked gives a name, neither honourable nor creditable, to the bearer of the name. Yes, Socrates , you seem to have a very unusual flow of words.
Nothing can be truer.
The responsibility rests with you. I will go on talking to my youth. Thus, my friend, we have declared and defined the nature of the subject. He who is the victim of his passions and the slave of pleasure will of course desire to make his beloved as agreeable to himself as possible. And the ignorant is the inferior of the wise, the coward of the brave, the slow of speech of the speaker, the dull of the clever.