Against the Sophists

When, therefore, the layman puts all these things together and observes that the teachers of wisdom and dispensers of happiness are themselves in great want[*](See the close of the Isoc. 4.) but exact only a small fee from their students, that they are on the watch for contradictions in words[*](The aim of “eristic” ( e(/ris means contention) is to show up the contradictions in the accepted morality.) but are blind to inconsistencies in deeds, and that, furthermore, they pretend to have knowledge of the future

but are incapable either of saying anything pertinent or of giving any counsel regarding the present, and when he observes that those who follow their judgements are more consistent and more successful[*](See Isoc. 13.2, note; Isoc. 12.9; Isoc. 10.5.) than those who profess to have exact knowledge, then he has, I think, good reason to contemn such studies and regard them as stuff and nonsense, and not as a true discipline of the soul.