The Republic Quotes

The just man then, as it seems, has come to light as a kind of robber, and I'm afraid you learned this from Homer. (334a)

"So long as I do not know what the just is, I shall hardly know whether it is a virtue or not and whether the one who has it is unhappy or happy." (354c)

"For it is likely that if a city of good men came to be, there would be a fight over not ruling, just as there is now over ruling." (347d)

Here is the wisdom of Socrates; unwilling himself to teach, he goes around learning from others, and does not even give thanks to them. (338b)

"With one tongue, [all poets] chant that moderation and justice are fair, but hard and full of drudgery, while intemperance and injustice are sweet and easy to acquire, and shameful only by opinion...

"When and for whom is [a lie]... useful? Isn't it useful against enemies, and, as a preventative, like a drug, for so-called friends when from madness or some folly they attempt to do something bad...

"But how, exactly, will [the guardians of the city] be reared and educated by us?" (376c)

[I]s there... a kind of good that we choose to have not because we desire its consequences, but because we delight in it for its own sake...? (357b)