The Works of Plato

"Well then, now in their presence, tell me, Socrates, what you just mentioned to me regarding this youth."

And I say: "My starting point is the same, Protagoras, as it was before, regarding why I came. Namely, this Hippocrates, it turns out, is possessed by a desire to be in association with you; and what will come of it for him if he is with you—this is what he would like to hear (in advance). So that is our business."

"O youth," Protagoras chimed in, "it will come of your association with me that on the very same day you associate with me, you will go home better, and the next day the same; and every day consistently you will have a profit toward the better."

And I, having heard this, said:
"There is nothing surprising in this, Protagoras: likely you yourself—such a man and such a sage original: "Καίπερ τηλικοῦτος ὤν καὶ οὕτως σοφός."—if someone taught you what you do not know, you would become better. But that is not the point; but rather, as if, for instance, this Hippocrates, having suddenly changed his desire, wanted the association of that youth who only recently moved here—Zeuxippus of Heraclea—and coming to him, as now to you, heard from him the same thing you said, that by being with him, every day he would improve and progress—so if he asked him: 'What specifically will be better (in me), and in what will I progress?'—Zeuxippus would have answered him that it is in painting; and if, having associated with Orthagoras the Theban and hearing from him the same thing as from you, he asked him in what he would be better every day by associating with him, he would have answered that it is in playing the flute—so you tell the youth and me, who am asking on his behalf: this Hippocrates, when he associates with Protagoras and on the very same day he associates with him, departs improved and every subsequent day will likewise progress—in what exactly and regarding what, Protagoras?"

And Protagoras, having heard this from me, says:
"You, Socrates, ask beautifully, and I take pleasure in answering those who ask beautifully. Coming..."