Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“The best way of training the young is to train yourself at the same time; not to admonish them, but to be always carrying out your own admonitions in practice.”
- Source
- Laws
- Date
- 4th century BCE
- Local voice
- Dialogue speaker · Athenian Stranger
- English wording
- Benjamin Jowett — Translator · from Ancient Greek
Meaning of “The best way of training the young is…”
The Athenian Stranger argues that adults teach ethical habits through consistent conduct as much as through instruction. Within the proposed city’s civic code, self-discipline and example help to shape a life shared across generations; this is not a randomized modern study of parenting.
Where does it come from?
Plato, Laws, Book V, the Athenian Stranger giving an extended civic-ethical exhortation to Cleinias and Megillus; Benjamin Jowett English, Gutenberg #1750. This is dialogue speech, not commentary in Jowett’s introduction. The local dramatic voice is the Athenian Stranger, not Socrates or Plato personally.
Why the local voice matters
Jowett English; Laws; local speaker Athenian Stranger, not Plato in autobiography.
