When I got around to read Plato, I found that he reinforced and copper-fastened the notion which experience had already rather forcibly suggested, that direct attempts to overcome and enlighten ignorance are a doubtful venture; the notion that it is impossible, as one of my friends puts it, to tell anybody anything which in a very real sense he does not already know. It seemed extraordinary that this should be so. Nevertheless, there it was; and apparently no one could give, — certainly no one, not even Plato, did give, — any more intelligent and satisfying reason why it should be so than I could give; and I could give none at all.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "When I got around to read Plato, I found that he reinforced and copper-fastened the notion which experience had already rather forcibly suggested, that direct attempts to overcome and enlighten ignorance are a doubtful venture; the notion that it is impossible, as one of my friends puts it, to tell anybody anything which in a very real sense he does not already know. It seemed extraordinary that this should be so. Nevertheless, there it was; and apparently no one could give, — certainly no one, not even Plato, did give, — any more intelligent and satisfying reason why it should be so than I could give; and I could give none at all." in the context of "Albert Jay Nock, in Memoirs of a Superflous Man (1943), p. 16" to mean that wisdom is timeless.