quote · Legacy record
So when a man surrenders to the sound of music and lets its sweet, soft, mournful strains, which we have just described, be funnelled into his soul through his ears, and gives up all his time to the glamorous moanings of song, the effect at first on his energy and initiative of mind, if he has any, is to soften it as iron is softened in a furnace, and made workable instead of hard and unworkable: but if he persists and does not break the enchantment, the next stage is that it melts and runs, till the spirit has quite run out of him and his mental sinews (if I may so put it) are cut, and he has become what Homer calls "a feeble fighter".
So when a man surrenders to the sound of music and lets its sweet, soft, mournful strains, which we have just described, be funnelled into his soul through his ears, and gives up all his time to the glamorous moanings of song, the effect at first on his energy and initiative of mind, if he has any, is to soften it as iron is softened in a furnace, and made workable instead of hard and unworkable: but if he persists and does not break the enchantment, the next stage is that it melts and runs, till the spirit has quite run out of him and his mental sinews (if I may so put it) are cut, and he has become what Homer calls "a feeble fighter".
Approximate author period: c. 387 BC · classical
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- Author or tradition
- Plato
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Approximate author period: c. 387 BC · classical
Approximate historical context for attribution to Plato, based on life years -427 to -347. Opening discussion dates Plato circa 427–347 BCE. Ancient life years and the resulting grouping point are approximate, not independently verified dates for attributed quotations. Source: Plato on Knowledge in the Theaetetus — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-theaetetus/ (checked 2026-10-09). This does not establish the composition date or authenticate the attribution of these words. Source: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-theaetetus/ (accessed 2026-10-09).
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 129962; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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