[345a]
it
will be no bad investment1 for you—any benefit that you bestow
on such company as this. For I tell you for my part that I am not convinced,
neither do I think that injustice is more profitable2 than justice, not even if one gives it
free scope and does not hinder it of its will.3 But, suppose,
sir, a man to be unjust and to be able to act unjustly either because he is
not detected or can maintain it by violence,4 all the same he does not convince me that it is more
profitable than justice.
1 κείσεται of an investment perhaps. Cf. Plautus, Rudens 939 “bonis quod bene fit, haud perit.”
2 Isocrates viii. 31 and elsewhere seems to be copying Plato's idea that injustice can never be profitable in the higher sense of the word. Cf. also the proof in the Hipparchus that all true κέρδος is ἀγαθόν.
3 Plato neglects for the present the refinement that the unjust man does not do what he really wishes, since all desire the good. Cf. 438 A, 577 D, and Gorgias 467 B.
4 Cf. 365 D.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
Purchase a copy of this text (not necessarily the same edition) from Amazon.com
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.