Formal training cannot fully fashion men who are without natural aptitude into good debaters or writers

Formal training cannot fully fashion men who are without natural aptitude into good debaters or writers, although it is capable of leading them on to self-improvement and to a greater degree of intelligence on many subjects. Isocrates. Against the Sophists. Speech 13. Section 15.

Image: Aristotle teaching Alexander the Great engraving by Charles Laplante courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.