Theaetetus: I will, to the best of my power.
Stranger: “Theaetetus sits”—not a very long sentence.
Theaetetus: Not very.
Stranger: Of whom does the sentence speak, and who is the subject? that is what you have to tell.
Theaetetus: Of me; I am the subject.
Stranger: Or this sentence, again—
Theaetetus: What sentence?
Stranger: “Theaetetus, with whom I am now speaking, is flying.”
Theaetetus: That also is a sentence which will be admitted by everyone to speak of me, and to apply to me.
Stranger: We agreed that every sentence must necessarily have a certain quality.
Theaetetus: Yes.
Stranger: And what is the quality of each of these two sentences?
Theaetetus: The one, as I imagine, is false, and the other true.
Stranger: The true says what is true about you?
Theaetetus: Yes.
Stranger: And the false says what is other than true?
Theaetetus: Yes.
Stranger: And therefore speaks of things which are not as if they were?
Theaetetus: True.
Stranger: And say that things are real of you which are not; for, as we were saying, in regard to each thing or person, there is much that is and much that is not.
Theaetetus: Quite true.
Stranger: The second of the two sentences which related to you was first of all an example of the shortest form consistent with our definition.
Theaetetus: Yes, this was implied in recent admission.
Stranger: And, in the second place, it related to a subject?
Theaetetus: Yes.