I may trust you, I hope, O Diogenes?
Diogenes. Thou mayest lower the gods in my presence, as safely as men in the presence of Timon.
Plato. I would not lower them: I would exalt them.
Diogenes. More foolish and presumptuous still!
Plato. Fair words, O Sinopean! I protest to you my aim is truth.
Diogenes. I cannot lead thee where of a certainty thou mayest always find it; but I will tell thee what it is. Truth is a point; the subtilest and finest; harder than adamant; never to be broken, worn away, or blunted. Its only bad quality is, that it is sure to hurt those who touch it; and likely to draw blood, perhaps the life-blood, of those who press earnestly upon it. Let us away from this narrow lane skirted with hemlock, and pursue our road again through the wind and dust toward the great man and the powerful. Him I would call the powerful one who controls the storms of his mind, and turns to good account the worst accidents of his fortune. The great man, I was going on to demonstrate, is somewhat more. He must be able to do this, and he must have an intellect which puts into motion the intellect of others.
Plato. Socrates, then, was your great man.
Diogenes. He was indeed; nor can all thou hast attributed to him ever make me think the contrary. I wish he could have kept a little more at home, and have thought it as well worth his while to converse with his own children as with others.
Plato. He knew himself born for the benefit of the human race.
Diogenes. Those who are born for the benefit of the human race go but little into it: those who are born for its curse are crowded.