The body, which is one thing, cannot be destroyed by food, which is another, unless the badness of the food is communicated to the body.
 Plato, The Republic. copy citation

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Author Plato
Source The Republic
Topic food body
Date
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by Benjamin Jowett
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1497/1497-h/1497-h.htm

Context

“But none of these destroy the soul in the same sense that disease destroys the body. The soul may be full of all iniquities, but is not, by reason of them, brought any nearer to death. Nothing which was not destroyed from within ever perished by external affection of evil. The body, which is one thing, cannot be destroyed by food, which is another, unless the badness of the food is communicated to the body. Neither can the soul, which is one thing, be corrupted by the body, which is another, unless she herself is infected. And as no bodily evil can infect the soul, neither can any bodily evil, whether disease or violence, or any other destroy the soul, unless it can be shown to render her unholy and unjust.” source