is most true, Socrates, in some cases.

Socrates: Well, then, let us proceed, for I see the hour is upon us
when I do my best thinking, and that hour shall be passed soon,
and hopefully with it shall pass a bit of your ignorance.

Meno: Well said, Socrates. I am with you.

Socrates: And shall have we a wager on the events of today?

Meno: Certainly, Socrates.

Socrates: And what shall you wager against this boy proving
that the length of the root of a square with an area of two
square feet, cannot be made by the ratio of two whole numbers?

Meno: You may have anything it is in my power to give,
unless it cause harm to myself or to another to give it.

Socrates: Well said, my friend Meno, and I shall leave it at
that. And what shall I offer you as a return wager?

Meno: Well, the easiest thing which comes to mind is to
wager all those dinners you won from me the other day.

Socrates: Very well, so be it.

Meno: Now Socrates, since you are my friend, I must give you
this friendly warning: you know that the Pythagoreans jealously
guard their secrets with secret meetings, protected by secret
handshakes, secret signs, passwords, and all that, do you not?

Socrates: I have heard as much, friend Meno.

Meno: Then be sure that they will seek revenge upon you for
demystifying the ideas and concepts which they worked so long and
hard and secretly to create and protect; for they are a jealous lot
in the extreme, hiding in mountain caves, which are hardly fit
to be called monasteries by even the most hardened monk.

Socrates: I take your meaning, friend Meno, and thank you
for your consideration, but I think that if I lose, that they
will not bother me, and if I win, it will appear so simple to
everyone, that if would be sheerest folly for anyone to make
even the smallest gesture to protect its fallen mystic secrecy.
Besides, I have a citizen's responsibility to Athens and to all
Athenians to do my best to protect them and enlighten them.

Meno: Very well, Socrates. Please do not ever say that I did not
try to warn you, especially after they have nailed you to a cross
in a public place, where anyone and everyone could hear you say
that the fault of this lay in my name.

Socrates: Do not worry, friend Meno, for if I were not
to show this simple feat of logic to you, I should just walk
down the street and find someone else, though not someone whose
company and conversation I should enjoy as much