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As there are misanthropists or haters of men, so also are there misologists, or haters of ideas.
Plato
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote suggests that just as some people dislike humanity, there are others who disdain ideas and intellectual pursuits.

In this quote, Plato reflects on the existence of people who harbor disdain not just for others but also for concepts and ideas. Misanthropists express a loathing for humanity, while misologists are critical of thought and ideas, indicating a broader struggle against both interpersonal and intellectual engagement. Plato emphasizes the importance of valuing ideas and emphasizes the risk of becoming too cynical or dismissive of the intellectual legacy of human thought.

Themes

IdeasPhilosophyIntellectualismMisanthropyThought

In practice

Example use cases

During a debate about the importance of ideas in society, this quote could highlight the dangers of dismissing intellectual discussion.

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A little wisdom, now and then

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