--- Plutarch, in "On Listening"
From Plutarch, Essays, transl. Robin Waterfield, Penguin Books, p. 50 (1992), Google Books
For the correct analogy for the mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting - no more - then it motivates one towards originality and instils the desire for truth.
See also On Listening to Lectures, as published in Vol. I of the Loeb Classical Library edition, transl. F. C. Babbit (1927) (uchicago.edu)
For the mind does not require filling like a bottle, but rather, like wood, it only requires kindling to create in it an impulse to think independently and an ardent desire for the truth.
H/t to redditors Ctrl-C and jean-luc_gohard in a thread on r/askphilosophy.
