Now human affairs are hardly worth considering in earnest, and yet we must be in earnest about them--a sad necessity constrains us.

And having got thus far, there will be a fitness in our completing the matter, if we can only find some suitable method of doing so.

But what do I mean?
Some one may ask this very question, and quite rightly, too.
CLEINIAS: Certainly.
ATHENIAN: I say that about serious matters a man should be serious, and about a matter which is not serious he should not be serious; and that God is the natural and worthy object of our most serious and blessed endeavours, for man, as I said before, is made to be the plaything of God, and this, truly considered, is the best of him; wherefore also every man and woman should walk seriously, and pass life in the noblest of pastimes, and be of another mind from what they are at present.
CLEINIAS: In what respect?
ATHENIAN: At present they think that their serious pursuits should be for the sake of their sports, for they deem war a serious pursuit, which must be managed well for the sake of peace; but the truth is, that there neither is, nor has been, nor ever will be, either amusement or instruction in any degree worth speaking of in war, which is nevertheless deemed by us to be the most serious of our pursuits.

And therefore, as we say, every one of us should live the life of peace as long and as well as he can.

And what is the right way of living?
Are we to live in sports always?
If so, in what kind of sports?
We ought to live sacrificing, and singing, and dancing, and then a man will be able to propitiate the Gods, and to defend himself against his enemies and conquer them in battle.