[275]
But I do hold that people can become better and worthier if they conceive an ambition to speak well,1 if they become possessed of the desire to be able to persuade their hearers, and, finally, if they set their hearts on seizing their advantage—I do not mean “advantage” in the sense given to that word by the empty-minded, but advantage in the true meaning of that term;2
1 Cf. Isoc. 13.15.
2 Compare his discussion of true advantage in Isoc. 3.2; Isoc. 8.28-35.
Isocrates. Isocrates with an English Translation in three volumes, by George Norlin, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1980.
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