Plato, Gorgias, section 505b

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[505b]

Socrates
And does not the same rule, my excellent friend, apply to the soul? So long as it is in a bad state—thoughtless, licentious, unjust and unholy—we must restrain its desires and not permit it to do anything except what will help it to be better: do you grant this, or not?

Callicles
I do.

Socrates
For thus, I take it, the soul itself is better off?

Callicles
To be sure.

Socrates
And is restraining a person from what he desires correcting him?

Callicles
Yes.

Socrates
Then correction is better for the soul than uncorrected licence, as you were thinking just now.

Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 3 translated by W.R.M. Lamb. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1967.

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