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Do not then suppose that these words are rashly spoken by us, O Protarchus, for they are in harmony with the testimony of those who said of old time that mind rules the universe.
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“Do not then suppose that these words are rashly spoken by us, O Protarchus, for they are in harmony with the testimony of those who said of old time that mind rules the universe.”

Plato

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Source
Philebus
Date
4th century BCE
Local voice
Dialogue speaker · Socrates
Meaning

Meaning of “Do not then suppose that these words are…”

Socrates invokes earlier thinkers in a discussion of whether intelligence helps order the cosmos. The claim concerns an ancient metaphysical account of mind as a cause, not the modern sense of an individual person’s mental health or an experimentally settled account of the universe.

Source context

Where does it come from?

Plato, Philebus, approximately 30c–d; Socrates addressing Protarchus amid the argument that reason or mind belongs with the ordering cause rather than with limitless pleasure. Benjamin Jowett English, Project Gutenberg #1744, dialogue text.

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Speaker context

Why the local voice matters

Jowett English; Philebus; Socrates is the dramatic speaker. Do not label this Plato autobiographical speech.

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MindPhilosophyThought-Provoking Quotes That Invite ReflectionReason
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Reason is, and ought only to be, the slave of the passions,
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“Reason is, and ought only to be, the slave of the passions,”

David Hume · A Treatise of Human Nature · 1739
Meaning & context

Hume argues that reasoning can inform means and consequences but does not by itself supply the motivating ends that move a person to act.

Source details

A Treatise of Human Nature, Book II, Part III, Section III, “Of the Influencing Motives of the Will,” Project Gutenberg #4705. The frozen catalog retains the opening clause “Reason is, and ought only to be, the slave of the passions,” from a longer sentence. It remains Hume’s historical philosophical thesis rather than contemporary empirical psychology.

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The unreasonableness of a thing is no argument against its existence, but rather a condition thereof.
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“The unreasonableness of a thing is no argument against its existence, but rather a condition thereof.”

Friedrich Nietzsche · Human, All-Too-Human · 1909
Meaning & context

The aphorism separates the fact that something exists from the expectation that existence must be rational or well ordered.

Source details

Human, All-Too-Human, Part I, aphorism 515, “From Experience”; Helen Zimmern translation.

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Perhaps he confused cause and effect; the excellent digestion may have been responsible for at least some of the philosophical serenity.
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“Perhaps he confused cause and effect; the excellent digestion may have been responsible for at least some of the philosophical serenity.”

Saki · When William Came · 1914
Voice: Fictional narrator · Narrator
Meaning & context

The narrator humorously reverses a character’s explanation of his calm temperament, using causal inversion to puncture self-satisfied philosophy.

Source details

When William Came, represented by Project Gutenberg #14540 from the 1914 John Lane edition. This is the narrator’s satirical aside about Herr von Kwarl; the digestion comparison is literary humor, not medical or psychological advice.

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the terms good and evil are only applied relatively, so that the same thing may be called both good and bad according to the relations in view,
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“the terms good and evil are only applied relatively, so that the same thing may be called both good and bad according to the relations in view,”

Benedict de Spinoza · On the Improvement of the Understanding · 1677
Meaning & context

Spinoza asks readers to examine evaluative terms in relation to purposes and comparisons instead of assuming that every judgment of good or bad names an absolute property.

Source details

On the Improvement of the Understanding, section 12, Project Gutenberg #1016 in R. H. M. Elwes's public-domain English translation. Spinoza says the terms good and evil are applied relatively while introducing his distinction between ordinary relative goods and the true/highest good sought by the unfinished treatise. It remains translation-mediated seventeenth-century methodological philosophy rather than a claim that all moral distinctions are meaningless.

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And ought not the rational principle, which is wise, and has the care of the whole soul, to rule, and the passionate or spirited principle to be the subject and ally?
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“And ought not the rational principle, which is wise, and has the care of the whole soul, to rule, and the passionate or spirited principle to be the subject and ally?”

Plato · The Republic · 4th century BCE
Voice: Dialogue speaker · Socrates
Meaning & context

Socrates argues that self-government involves a rational faculty attending to the whole person while spirited impulses support its judgment. The passage is a question within his analogy between a well-ordered city and the three parts of the soul. It does not mean that all emotion should be suppressed or that Plato established a modern psychological theory.

Source details

Plato, The Republic, Book IV, approximately 441e–442a; Socrates addressing Glaucon while contrasting the rational, spirited and appetitive parts of the soul. Exact sentence from Benjamin Jowett English, Project Gutenberg #1497, Book IV main dialogue (not introductory editorial matter). The premise belongs to an ancient account of the soul and remains open to philosophical interpretation; not clinical or neuroscientific evidence.

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