quote · Legacy record
if someone got to see the Beautiful itself, absolute, pure, unmixed, not polluted by human flesh or colors or any other great nonsense of mortality, but if he could see the divine Beauty itself in its one form? Do you think it would be a poor life for a human being to look there and to behold it by that which he ought, and to be with it? Or haven't you remembered that in that life alone, when he looks at Beauty in the only way what Beauty can be seen - only then will it become possible for him to give birth no to images of virtue (because he's in touch with no images) but to true virtue (because he is in touch with the true Beauty). The love of the gods belongs to anyone who has given birth to true virtue and nourished it, and if any human being could become immortal, it would be he.
if someone got to see the Beautiful itself, absolute, pure, unmixed, not polluted by human flesh or colors or any other great nonsense of mortality, but if he could see the divine Beauty itself in its one form? Do you think it would be a poor life for a human being to look there and to behold it by that which he ought, and to be with it? Or haven't you remembered that in that life alone, when he looks at Beauty in the only way what Beauty can be seen - only then will it become possible for him to give birth no to images of virtue (because he's in touch with no images) but to true virtue (because he is in touch with the true Beauty). The love of the gods belongs to anyone who has given birth to true virtue and nourished it, and if any human being could become immortal, it would be he.
Approximate author period: c. 387 BC · classical
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- Author or tradition
- Plato
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
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- Approximate author period: c. 387 BC · classical
Approximate historical context for attribution to Plato, based on life years -427 to -347. Opening discussion dates Plato circa 427–347 BCE. Ancient life years and the resulting grouping point are approximate, not independently verified dates for attributed quotations. Source: Plato on Knowledge in the Theaetetus — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-theaetetus/ (checked 2026-10-09). This does not establish the composition date or authenticate the attribution of these words. Source: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-theaetetus/ (accessed 2026-10-09).
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 91820; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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