The Symposium
Plato staged a dinner party where some of the greatest minds in Athens take turns explaining what love is, and each answer reveals more about the speaker than about love itself.
“Love is born into every human being; it calls back the halves of our original nature together; it tries to make one out of two and heal the wound of h...”
Why It Matters
Plato staged a dinner party where some of the greatest minds in Athens take turns explaining what love is, and each answer reveals more about the speaker than about love itself. Socrates's account of Diotima's "ladder of love" — ascending from physical beauty to the Form of Beauty itself — shaped Western ideas about love, desire, and transcendence. It is the most entertaining philosophical dialogue ever written.
The 
Take
Personal reviewWow did the ancient Greeks love loving boys. An entire book of Plato’s devoted to it. Socrates steals the show among 8ish speeches.
Notable Quotes
“He whom love touches not walks in darkness.”
“Love is the desire for the perpetual possession of the good.”