O my dear Cleinias, I am quite ashamed

Platão

And very unlike a divine man would he be, who is unable to count one, two, three, or to distinguish odd and even numbers, or is unable to count at all, or reckon night and day, and who is totally unacquainted with the revolution of the sun and moon, and the other stars. [...]

All freemen, I conceive, should learn as much of these branches of knowledge as every child in Egypt is taught when he learns the alphabet. In that country arithmetical games have been invented for the use of mere children, which they learn as a pleasure and amusement. [...]

O my dear Cleinias, I, like yourself, have late in life heard with amazement of our ignorance in these matters; to me we appear to be more like pigs than men, and I am quite ashamed, not only of myself, but of all Hellenes.

Fonte (português): Sagan, C. 1998 [1996]. O mundo assombrado pelos demônios. SP, Companhia das Letras. Trecho extraído do Livro 7 d’As Leis. A versão para o inglês é de Benjamin Jowett (1817-1893). Platão (427?-347? aC).