[521b]
“Most true,” he said. “Can you
name any other type or ideal of life that looks with scorn on political office
except the life of true philosophers1?” I asked. “No, by
Zeus,” he said. “But what we require,” I said,
“is that those who take office2 should not be lovers of rule. Otherwise there will be a
contest with rival lovers.” “Surely.”
“What others, then, will you compel to undertake the guardianship of
the city than those who have most intelligence of the principles that are the
means of good government and who possess distinctions of another kind and a life
that is preferable to the political life?” “No
others,” he said.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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