Page - 794 - in The Complete Plato

STRANGER: And must be of a certain quality. THEAETETUS: Certainly. STRANGER: And now let us mind what we are about. THEAETETUS: We must do so. STRANGER: I will repeat a sentence to you in which a thing and an action are combined, by the help of a noun and a verb; and you shall tell me of whom the sentence speaks. THEAETETUS: I will, to the best of my power. STRANGER: ‘Theaetetus sits’—not a very long sentence. THEAETETUS: Not very. STRANGER: Of whom does the sentence speak, and who is the subject? that is what you have to tell. THEAETETUS: Of me; I am the subject. STRANGER: Or this sentence, again— THEAETETUS: What sentence? STRANGER: ‘Theaetetus, with whom I am now speaking, is flying.’ THEAETETUS: That also is a sentence which will be admitted by every one to speak of me, and to apply to me. STRANGER: We agreed that every sentence must necessarily have a certain quality. THEAETETUS: Yes. STRANGER: And what is the quality of each of these two sentences? THEAETETUS: The one, as I imagine, is false, and the other true. STRANGER: The true says what is true about you? THEAETETUS: Yes. STRANGER: And the false says what is other than true? THEAETETUS: Yes. STRANGER: And therefore speaks of things which are not as if they were? THEAETETUS: True. STRANGER: And say that things are real of you which are not; for, as we were saying, in regard to each thing or person, there is much that is and much 794