all things excellent are as difficult as they are rare,

Socrates is well-known for his quotes on the virtues of knowledge, justice, and wisdom. But there’s one quote that often gets overlooked: “All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.” This quote points to the difficulty in attaining excellence. In this blog post I will explore Socrates’ quote through its origins and meaning.  The quote comes from the dialogue Alcibiades I, which is part of a larger work entitled “The Symposium” by Plato. In this particular passage Socrates implies that all great things are difficult to attain or achieve. He says “all excellent things are so hard to get whatever it may be and however good they might be for us.”  This leads to an interesting question: How do we know if something is really excellent? It’s difficult because excellence isn’t tangible like many other concepts in life such as love, beauty, or success. Excellence can only be defined through what it means not just for ourselves but also for others around us. After all, according to Socrates’ own theory of Forms (or