From Pythagoras (whether by way of Socrates or not) Plato derived the Orphic elements in his philosophy: the religious trend, the belief in immortality, the other-worldliness, the priestly tone, and all that is involved in the simile of the cave; also his respect for mathematics, and his intimate intermingling of intellect and mysticism.
a History Of Western Philosophyby bertrand Russell
The problem of finding a collection of wise men and leaving the government to them is thus an insoluble one. That is the ultimate reason for democracy.
Following Locke’s doctrine that the mind is a tabula rasa, Helvetius considered the differences between individuals entirely due to differences of education: in every individual, his talents and his virtues are the effect of his instruction.
It is here that Spinoza is in the right — a life dominated by a single passion is a narrow life, incompatible with every kind of wisdom.
Science tells us what we can know, but what we can know is little, and if we forget how much we cannot know we become insensitive to many things of very great importance. Theology, on the other hand, induces a dogmatic belief that we have knowledge where in fact we have ignorance.
