Flowers for Algernon Preface

Author Daniel Keyes prefaces Flowers for Algernon with a quotation from Plato's The Republic, in which the Greek philosopher discourages men from laughing at those who are sightless, perplexed or weak. As Plato says:

"Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eye are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind's eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye; and he who remembers this when he sees any one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter life, and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by excess of light. And he will count the one happy in his condition and state of being, and he will pity the other..." Plato, The Republic Preface