Power of the Word
“There neither is nor ever will be a treatise of mine on the [things to which I devote myself]. For it does not admit of exposition like other branches of knowledge; but after much converse about the matter itself and a life lived together, suddenly a light, as it were, is kindled in one soul by a flame that leaps to it from another, and thereafter sustains itself.” ― Plato, The Seventh Letter
Plato distinguishes between the written word and the spoken word; between the branches of knowledge and a light that is kindled in the soul; between understanding and vision. Some understand this sort of “vision” as the true essence of Plato’s unwritten doctrine.
L.G. Sleiman 