In confirmation of these views I might say that the three combined and cooperated in the psychic powers of the men of glorious memory such as Pythagoras and Socrates and Plato and all who have won imperishable renown. Fortunate and favored of the gods is every one upon whom the gods have bestowed all these gifts. If any one thinks that lack of natural endowments can not be supplied by suitable instruction and practice in virtue he is very much, yes, altogether mistaken. But what I regard as most important of all and the capstone of everything I have said, I have yet to mention. A liberal education and mental culture alone of all things within our reach are immortal and divine.
Reason is the master of language and language is the servant of reason.
Reason can not be destroyed by misfortune nor taken away by calumny, nor enfeebled by disease, nor impaired by old age. Reason alone grows young with advancing years, and time which bears along everything else, adds to old age wisdom and experience. War that sweeps away all things else and destroys like a mountain torrent is powerless to deprive us of a paideia . Of these the last-named bears the grand of the slave and the mere animal. A contemplative life, for the reason that it keeps aloof from practical affairs, is useless, while a practical life divorced from philosophy is without refinement and without culture.