Every once in a while, it feels good to return to the classics. These days, we are bombarded by self-help books advocating one remedy or another. But sometimes the best advice comes from centuries old works. Without question, my favorite classic is The Portable Plato, edited by Scott Buchanan. May copy has pages that have turned yellow with age, and it is filled with the marks that only a young college student could have made while searching for wisdom.

At least twice a year, I pick it off my bookshelf and read my favorite passages, such as Plato's Symposium, which always inspires me. In today's world, the word "symposium" represents a place where ideas are exchanged with great seriousness. In Plato's time, a "symposium" was basically an all male drinking party. The men arranged themselves in a circle on comfortable pillows, got drunk and engaged in great philosophical dialogue. Plato's Symposium takes place at the home of Agathon in Athens sometime after 385BC.

As a young man, I used to imagine myself as one of the young Greek warriors preparing for battle. This passage says it all:

"And I say that a lover who is detected in doing any dishonourable act, or submitting through cowardice when any dishonour is done to him by another, will be more pained at being detected by his beloved than at being seen by his father, or by his companions, or by any one else. The beloved too, when he is found in any disgraceful situation, has the same feeling about his lover. And if there were only some way of contriving that a state or an army should be made up of lovers and their loves, they would be the very best governors of their own city, abstaining from all dishonour, and emulating one another in honour; and when fighting at each other's side, although a mere handful, they would overcome the world."

Now that I have grown into my 60s, other passages seem to hold more meaning for me. I am not eager to do battle and I am more in line with being a teacher. I love this passage:

"How I wish, said Socrates, taking his place as he was desired, that wisdom could be infused by touch, out of the fuller into the emptier man, as water runs through wool out of a fuller cup into an emptier one; if that were so, how greatly should I value the privilege of reclining by your side!"

Now there might even be some advice for those taking us to war and practicing evil in today's world:

"Now actions vary according to the manner of their performance. Take, for example, that which we are now doing, drinking, singing and talking - these actions are not in themselves either good or evil, but they turn out in this or that way according to the mode of performing them; and when well done they are good, and when wrongly done they are evil...."

The Portable Plato is the most readable of all the translations that I have found of Plato. Do yourself a favor and go pick up a copy today.