Book: Pericles

He who loves wine, lazy and gluttonous, will live, I believe, no more than a month.

Men are the wind that scatters the seeds of trees and flowers all over the land. Women are the field on which flowers and trees grow. Lumberjacks will come and cut down trees, mowers will come and mow flowers. The wife is a garden and a flower garden near the house, where neither loggers nor mowers will penetrate. This is where the wind makes noise in the foliage and plays with flower petals.

Meanness is born best of all from cowardice, from fear, from other vices, and not from courage and nobility.

The genuine and eternal in man is only the soul, and therefore only what the soul experiences is reliable and authentic, and not what the eyes, ears, tongue, lips experience, what the nose, fingers and all the delicate tissues of the body feel. The body deceives, but the soul knows the truth.

Whoever rushes to the truth is the defender of lies.

They say that peace of mind is dearer than all blessings. If we talk about truth and benefit, then truth is closer to the general benefit than to the personal one. A good citizen is a social being. It is true that it is beneficial to all in the end. This is real knowledge of real benefit. It is hidden in our soul, partaking of the gods and immortality.

A person himself determines what is useful and what is harmful to him - and this is how the question of truth is resolved. Man himself, alone - a measure of benefit and truth.

Useful is what helps a person live long and well. And if his knowledge serves that purpose, it is true. And if they ruin it, they are false.

If truth and utility are one and the same, if there is more truth, where there is more benefit, and there is less truth, where there is less benefit, if truth has a degree of truth, then where is the line after which a useful lie becomes useful truth?

You, Socrates, perfecting your soul, care about your personal welfare, and Pericles - about the welfare of all Athenians. Where there is more benefit, there is more truth. The degree of mind is the degree of closeness to the truth. And that means Pericles is smarter than you.

The mind, I think, is the perfection of the soul, its beauty. There is a lot of benefit for a person in having a perfect, beautiful soul.

- What do we compare the mind to? Socrates asked.
"With light," Replied Pericles. - Light that pierces the darkness and allows you to move forward confidently. This light is the light of the soul. The soul of fools does not shine. Yes, they do not go forward, but only circle along the beaten paths and paths, not having knowledge of either the past or the future.
- Nicely said, Pericles. But look what a mistake you made. The intelligent, illuminating the way, make their way forward at the cost of the great efforts of the soul, and the fools follow them along the beaten path, not having to worry. It turns out that the smart work for the sake of fools. Aren't they stupid?

- Yes, when their mind fails.

Only those who do not strive to get rid of poverty through work deserve condemnation.