Plato vs. Polonius on being true to truth, or to self-interest
"...'Every man by nature is and ought to be his own friend'. Whereas the excessive love of self is in reality the source to each man of all offenses; for the lover is blinded about the beloved, so that he judges wrongly of the just, the good, and the honorable, and thinks that he ought always to prefer himself to the truth." - Plato Laws, c. 360 B.C.E Consider using this as context and historical background for the advice of Polonius to his son Laertes in Shakespeare's Hamlet: "This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day. Thou canst not then be false to any man." (1.3.84-86) Polonius also seems narcissistic and miserly, advising his son, "Neither a borrower nor a lender be..." (1.3.81), and having learned that Ophelia has been "most free and bounteous" of her time spent with Hamlet (1.3.101-2), urges that she should "tender" herself "more dearly" (1.3.116), or in other words,...