What's the point of these ideas? They give you the greatest and most fitting reward for anyone who's truly educated: freedom from anxiety, freedom from fear. Real freedom. Don't listen to most people who say only free citizens should get an education. Listen to the philosophers who say only the educated are truly free. How does this work? Simple: What is freedom except the power to live as you choose? Nothing else. So tell me — do you want to live in ignorance? Of course not. Then anyone who lives in ignorance isn't free. Do you want to live in fear? Do you want to live in sadness? Do you want to live in anxiety? Of course not. Then anyone who lives in fear or sadness or anxiety isn't free. But whoever breaks free from sorrows and fears and anxieties — that person also breaks free from slavery. So how can we keep believing you lawmakers when you say 'We only let free citizens get an education'?
What then is the fruit of these opinions? It is that which ought to be the most noble and the most becoming to those who are really educated, release from perturbation, release from fear. Freedom. For in these matters we must not believe the many, who say that free persons only ought to be educated, but we should rather believe the philosophers who say that the educated only are free. How is this? In this manner: Is freedom anything else than the power of living as we choose? Nothing else. Tell me then, ye men, do you wish to live in error? We do not. No one then who lives in error is free. Do you wish to live in fear? Do you wish to live in sorrow? Do you wish to live in perturbation? By no means. No one then who is in a state of fear or sorrow or perturbation is free; but whoever is delivered from sorrows and fears and perturbations, he is at the same time also delivered from servitude. How then can we continue to believe you, most dear legislators, when you say, We only allow free persons to be educated?