Plato, Philebus, section 17b

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[17b] so learn it from them.

Protarchus
How?

Socrates
Sound, which passes out through the mouth of each and all of us, is one, and yet again it is infinite in number.

Protarchus
Yes, to be sure.

Socrates
And one of us is no wiser than the other merely for knowing that it is infinite or that it is one; but that which makes each of us a grammarian is the knowledge of the number and nature of sounds.

Protarchus
Very true.

Socrates
And it is this same knowledge which makes the musician.

Protarchus
How is that?

Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 9 translated by Harold N. Fowler. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1925.

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