心随精英，口随大众。逆流而上难以纠正错误，并且危机四伏——只有苏格拉底(1)才敢这么做。与他人唱反调，他人会视为侮辱，因为这相当于你在谴责其判断力。你谴责了某种看法，也就谴责了赞成这种看法的人，因此，你会招致双倍的厌恶。真理属于少数人，谬误恶劣却普遍。你不能根据人们在公众之前所言去判断其是否明智。智者在那里说的话都不是发自内心，只是迎合大众趣味而已，他内心也许对此深恶痛绝。谨慎之人应避免被人反驳，也应尽量不反驳别人——虽然他们老早便已作出评判，却不急于发表。人的思想生而自由，不容亦不应遭到贸然侵犯。智者因此保持缄默，如果他愿意敞开胸怀，也只是在隐蔽之处，在一小部分合适的人面前。
think with the few and speak with the many. by swimming against the stream it is impossible to remove error, easy to fall into danger: only a socrates can undertake it. to dissent from others' views is regarded as an insult, because it is their condemnation. disgust is doubled on account of the thing blamed and of the person who praised it. truth is for the few, error is both common and vulgar. the wise man is not known by what he says on the public square, for there he speaks not with his own voice but with that of common folly, however much his inmost thoughts may gainsay it. the prudent avoid being contradicted as much as contradicting: though they have their censure ready they are not ready to publish it. thought is free, force cannot and should not be used to it. the wise man therefore retires into silence, and if he allows himself to come out of it, he does so in the shade and before few and fit persons.
(1) 古希腊哲学家、演说家，柏拉图的老师。以“渎神违教”之罪被控入狱，被判死刑，服毒而亡。
