[25]
I have often been singled out before now, Socrates, and condemned to suffer punishment or pay damages.’“‘By whom, Ischomachus?’ I asked; ‘I am in the dark about that!'“‘By my wife,’ was his answer.“‘And, pray, how do you plead?’ said I.“‘Pretty well, when it is to my interest to speak the truth. But when lying is called for, Socrates, I can't make the worse cause appear the better—oh no, not at all.’“‘Perhaps, Ischomachus,’ I commented, ‘you can't make the falsehood into the truth!’”
Xenophon. Xenophon in Seven Volumes, 4. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA; William Heinemann, Ltd., London. 1979.
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