「我說，誠然，知識是靈魂的糧食；而我的朋友啊，我們必須小心，智者學派自吹自擂他們所販賣的東西時，他們並沒有欺騙我們，就像商販在批發或零售給身體的糧食一樣；因為他們都是良莠不分的吹噓他們的商品，卻不知道什麼是真正有益或有害的；他們的顧客也不明就理，除非剛好遇到行家或醫生。同樣的，那些在城裡到處兜售知識的人們，躉售或零賣給缺乏知識的人，也會不分好壞的吹噓他們。
朋友啊，如果說他們很多人並不明白知識對靈魂的作用，我也不以為怪；而他們的顧客恐怕也一無所知，除非買家剛好是靈魂的醫生。所以說，如果你能抉擇善惡，你應該可以安全無虞的購買Protagoras（希臘哲學家，被柏拉圖認為是詭辯學派的一員）或任何人的知識；否則，我的朋友啊，就請你收手，不要把你最寶貴的利益押在碰運氣的遊戲上。因為相較於買肉或沽酒，購買知識的危險性可是大得多了......」
---柏拉圖《普羅塔哥拉篇》
“Sure, I say, knowledge is the food of soul; and we must take care, my friend, that the Sophist does not deceive us when he praises what he sells, like the dealers wholesale or retail who sell the food of the body; for they praise indiscriminately all their goods, without knowing what are really beneficial or hurtful: neither do their customers know, with the exception of any trainer or physician who may happen to buy of them. In like manners those who carry about the wares of knowledge, and make the round of the cities, and sell or retail them to any customer who is in want of them, praise them all alike; though I should not wonder, O my friend, if many of them were really ignorant of their effect upon the soul; and their customers equally ignorant, unless he who buys of them happens to be a physician of the soul. If, therefore, you have understanding of what is good and evil, you may safely buy knowledge of Protagoras or any one; but if not, then, O my friend, pause, and do not hazard your dearest interests at a game of chance. For there is far greater peril in buying knowledge than in buying meat and drink: the one you purchase of the wholesale or retail dealer, and carry them away in other vessels, and before you receive them into the body as food, you may deposit them at home and call in any experienced friend who knows what is good to be eaten or drunken, what not, and how much, and when; and then the danger of purchasing them is not so great. But you cannot buy the wares of knowledge and carry them away in another vessel; when you have paid for them you must receive them into the soul and go yours way, either greatly harmed or greatly benefited; and therefore we should deliberate and take counsel with our elders; for we are still young — too young to determine such a matter.”
---Plato, Protagoras
當然我必須承認這有點斷章取義，理論上應該要針對《普羅塔哥拉篇》裡面柏拉圖想要透過蘇格拉底和普羅塔哥拉對話辯論的背景、雙方哲學觀與辯論主體（例如德性Virtue）有些認識再來看這段文字。
只是當我在佛洛姆的書中看到這段節錄時，心感感慨和警惕，而想把它紀錄下來。
在知識的年代身為知識工作者，「德性」何在？答案見仁見智，這真是一個非常個人卻重要的問題。
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