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Plato

"Crito"

Yes.


Soc. Could we live, having an evil and corrupted body?


Cr. Certainly not.


Soc. And will life be worth having, if that higher part of man be depraved, which is improved by justice and deteriorated by injustice? Do we suppose that principle, whatever it may be in man, which has to do with justice and injustice, to be inferior to the body?


Cr. Certainly not.


Soc. More honored, then?


Cr. Far more honored.


Soc. Then, my friend, we must not regard what the many say of us: but what he, the one man who has understanding of just and unjust, will say, and what the truth will say. And therefore you begin in error when you suggest that we should regard the opinion of the many about just and unjust, good and evil, honorable and dishonorable. Well, someone will say, "But the many can kill us."


Cr. Yes, Socrates; that will clearly be the answer.


Soc. That is true; but still I find with surprise that the old argument is, as I conceive, unshaken as ever. And I should like to know Whether I may say the same of another proposition- that not life, but a good life, is to be chiefly valued?


Cr. Yes, that also remains.


Soc. And a good life is equivalent to a just and honorable one- that holds also?


Cr.


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