Wit & Attitude Quote by Plato

Big ideas don’t settle into place on their own; they need the small, often ignored supports that make “greatness” structurally possible. Plato’s line borrows the voice of builders to smuggle in a political and ethical argument: the impressive blocks of a society - its leaders, laws, heroic ideals - only “lie well” when the lesser stones are properly set. It’s a quiet rebuke to the glamour of the monumental. A civilization that worships its marble statues but neglects the mortar of ordinary life will crack.

The phrasing matters. “As the builders say” is Plato doing what he often does at his best: anchoring metaphysics in craft. He appeals to techne, practical know-how, to undercut elite self-mythology. The “lesser” stones aren’t inferior in function; they’re foundational in fact. The subtext is a warning to philosophers and rulers who imagine they can design a perfect city from the top down. Even the most rational blueprint collapses if it ignores the mundane prerequisites: education, habits, labor, stable families, civic trust.

In context, this fits the Platonic obsession with order, harmony, and the interdependence of parts within a whole. The line also flatters the reader into humility. If you think you’re a “larger stone,” Plato nudges you to remember you’re still dependent. If you think you’re “lesser,” he hands you a kind of dignity: without you, the monument doesn’t stand.