Plato, Charmides

[159a] have temperance with you, you can hold an opinion about it. For being in you, I presume it must, in that case, afford some perception from which you can form some opinion of what temperance is, and what kind of thing it is : do you not think so ?

I do, he replied.

And since you understand the Greek tongue, I said, you can tell me, I suppose, your view of this particular thought of yours?

I daresay, he said.

Then in order that we may make a guess whether it is in you or not, tell me, I said, what you say of temperance according to your opinion. [159b] He at first hung back, and was not at all willing to answer: but presently he said that, to his mind, temperance was doing everything orderly and quietly—walking in the streets, talking, and doing everything else of that kind; and in a word, he said, I think the thing about which you ask may be called quietness.

Well, I said, are you right there? They do say, you know, Charmides, that quiet people are temperate : so let us see if there is anything in what they say. Tell me, is not temperance, [159c] however, among the honorable things?

To be sure, he said.

Well, which is most honorable at the writing master's, to write the same sort of letters quickly or quietly?

Quickly.

And in reading, to do it quickly or slowly?

Quickly.

And so, in the same way, to play the lyre quickly, or to wrestle nimbly, is far more honorable than to do it quietly and slowly?

Yes.

And what of boxing, alone or combined with wrestling? Is it not the same there too?

To be sure.

And in running and leaping and all activities [159d] of the body, are not nimble and quick movements accounted honorable, while sluggish and quiet ones are deemed disgraceful?

Apparently.

So we find, I said, that in the body, at least, it is not quietness, but the greatest quickness and nimbleness that is most honorable, do we not?

Certainly.

And temperance was an honorable thing?

Yes.

Then in the body, at least, it is not quietness but quickness that will be the more temperate thing, since temperance is honorable.

So it seems, he said. [159e] Well now, I went on; in learning, is facility the more honorable, or difficulty?

Facility.

And facility in learning, I said, is learning quickly, and difficulty in learning is learning quietly and slowly?

Yes.

And is it not more honorable to teach another quickly and forcibly, rather than quietly and slowly?

Yes.

Well now, is it more honorable to be reminded and to remember quietly and slowly, or forcibly and quickly?

Forcibly, he replied, and quickly.