Kitap 3
3.9
Well, I suppose you know that under all conditions human beings are most willing to obey those whom they believe to be the best.Cyropaedia III. i. 20. Thus in sickness they most readily obey the doctor, on board ship the pilot, on a farm the farmer, whom they think to be most skilled in his business.Yes, certainly.Then it is likely that in horsemanship too, one who clearly knows best what ought to be done will most easily gain the obedience of the others.
3.10
If then, Socrates, I am plainly the best horseman among them, will that suffice to gain their obedience?Yes, if you also show them that it will be safer and more honourable for them to obey you.How, then, shall I show that?Well, it’s far easier than if you had to show them that bad is better than good and more profitable.
3.11
Do you mean that in addition to his other duties a cavalry leader must take care to be a good speaker?Did you suppose that a commander of cavalry should be mum? Did you never reflect that all the best we learned according to custom — the learning, I mean, that teaches us how to live — we learned by means of words, and that every other good lesson to be learned is learned by means of words; that the best teachers rely most on the spoken word and those with the deepest knowledge of the greatest subjects are the best talkers?
