The breeder of animals aims chiefly at size or speed or strength; in a few cases at courage or temper; most often the fitness of the animal for food is the great desideratum.

But mankind are not bred to be eaten, nor yet for their superiority in fighting or in running or in drawing carts.

Neither does the improvement of the human race consist merely in the increase of the bones and flesh, but in the growth and enlightenment of the mind.
Hence there must be 'a marriage of true minds' as well as of bodies, of imagination and reason as well as of lusts and instincts.

Men and women without feeling or imagination are justly called brutes; yet Plato takes away these qualities and puts nothing in their place, not even the desire of a noble offspring, since parents are not to know their own children.

The most important transaction of social life, he who is the idealist philosopher converts into the most brutal.