PlatoThinkers

The Body is a hindrance, as it opposes and even imprisons the soul.

The Body is a separateness from the self: It is 'lastened and glued' to me, 'nailed' and 'riveted' to me. It is a confinement from which the soul struggles to escape -'prison', 'cage'. The body is the locus of all that which threatens our attempts at control.

The Body is appetitive, not cognitive, and must be controlled by reason (the mind) lest the appetites overtake us. The body, with its deceptive senses, keeps us from real knowledge... it rivets us in a world of material things.

The Body is opposed to the soul, thus it can be trained to obey the soul by gymnastic and music.

The Body is that to which we are bound like an oyster to its shell.

The Body is the antithesis of the soul, the source of all weaknesses as opposed to what alone is capable of independence and goodness.

The Body is the enemy of the soul because it apprehends things through the senses (which are notorious for their deceptions).

The City is a place of men teaching men: Fields and trees are not willing to teach me anything... but this can be effected by men residing in the city.

The City is not so much a bounded edifice built of stone, but something we perpetually enact between one another.

The City is always divided into two, one the city of the poor, the other of the rich... these are at war with one another.

The City is the soul writ large such that to consider the soul is to squint at little letters from afar. To regard the city is to look at the same letters but much larger and closer at hand.

A City is what it is because the citizens are what they are.