"If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life"
About this Quote
Education, for Plato, isn’t a tasteful accessory; it’s basic locomotion. The line lands with the bluntness of a street-level warning: neglect learning and you don’t merely miss out, you move through life with a permanent handicap. “Lame” does a lot of work here. It’s bodily, public, slightly shameful. Plato chooses a metaphor that makes ignorance visible: the uneducated person doesn’t just think poorly in private, he stumbles in full view, unable to keep pace with the demands of civic and moral life.
The intent is disciplinary as much as aspirational. Plato’s Athens had watched democracy whip itself into disaster, swayed by charismatic speakers and shallow opinion. His critique of the polis is that people who can’t distinguish appearance from reality become easy prey for flattery, fear, and propaganda. So education isn’t job training; it’s defense. It’s what lets someone stand upright against the seductions of rhetoric and the pull of appetite. The “end of his life” clause is the real sting: this isn’t a phase you grow out of. Neglect calcifies into character.
Subtextually, the quote smuggles in Plato’s hierarchy: some lives are more fully human than others, because some minds are better formed. He isn’t offering comfort to late bloomers; he’s setting stakes. In the Republic and beyond, education is the mechanism that makes self-rule possible, and without it, freedom becomes a kind of limp -- motion without direction, choice without understanding.
The intent is disciplinary as much as aspirational. Plato’s Athens had watched democracy whip itself into disaster, swayed by charismatic speakers and shallow opinion. His critique of the polis is that people who can’t distinguish appearance from reality become easy prey for flattery, fear, and propaganda. So education isn’t job training; it’s defense. It’s what lets someone stand upright against the seductions of rhetoric and the pull of appetite. The “end of his life” clause is the real sting: this isn’t a phase you grow out of. Neglect calcifies into character.
Subtextually, the quote smuggles in Plato’s hierarchy: some lives are more fully human than others, because some minds are better formed. He isn’t offering comfort to late bloomers; he’s setting stakes. In the Republic and beyond, education is the mechanism that makes self-rule possible, and without it, freedom becomes a kind of limp -- motion without direction, choice without understanding.
Quote Details
| Topic | Learning |
|---|
More Quotes by Plato
Add to List
