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Full Idea
It is impossible for anything to be like an absolute idea, because a third idea will appear to make them alike, and if that is like anything, it will lead to another idea, and so on.
Gist of Idea
Nothing can be like an absolute idea, because a third idea intervenes to make them alike (leading to a regress)
Source
Plato (Parmenides [c.366 BCE], 133a)
Book Ref
Plato: 'Plato IV (Cratylus,Parmenides,Hippias Maj, Min)', ed/tr. Fowler,H.N. [Harvard Loeb 1926], p.221
A Reaction
This is Bradley's Idea 7966, that if relations are real, they will need further relations to connect them to their relata (and so on). Russell disagreed.
Related Idea
Idea 7966 Relations must be linked to their qualities, but that implies an infinite regress of relations [Bradley]