Glaucon, and the whole of life is the only limit which wise men assign to the hearing of such discourses. I foresaw this gathering trouble, and avoided it.įor what purpose do you conceive that we have come here, said Thrasymachus, - to look for gold, or to hear discourse? Only too glad that I had laid this question to sleep, and was reflecting how fortunate I was in your acceptance of what I then said, you ask me to begin again at the very foundation, ignorant of what a hornet's nest of words you are stirring. I said, You know not what you are doing in thus assailing me: What an argument are you raising about the State! Just as I thought that I had finished, and was

Without more ado, said Thrasymachus, you may consider us all to be equally agreed. To that resolution, said Glaucon, you may regard me as saying Agreed. Question is still undetermined, and you are taking in hand another State, we have resolved, as you heard, not to let you go until you give an account of all this. We have been long expecting that you would tell us something about the family life of your citizens - how they will bring children into the world, and rear them when they have arrived,Īnd, in general, what is the nature of this community of women and children - for we are of opinion that the right or wrong management of such matters will have a great and paramount influence on the State for good or for evil. Please, therefore, to say what sort of community you mean. Yes, he said but what is right in this particular case, like everything else, requires to be explained for community may be of many Matter of women and children 'friends have all things in common'. He said, we think that you are lazy, and mean to cheat us out of a whole chapter which is a very important part of the story and you fancy that we shall not notice your airy way of proceeding as if it were self-evident to everybody, that in the I repeated, Why am I especially not to be let off? Who is it, I said, whom you are refusing to let off?

'Shall we let him off, or what shall we do?'Ĭertainly not, said Adeimantus, raising his voice. I was proceeding to tell the order in which the four evil forms appeared to me to succeed one another, when Polemarchus, who was sitting a little way off, just beyond Adeimantus,īegan to whisper to him: stretching forth his hand, he took hold of the upper part of his coat by the shoulder, and drew him towards him, leaning forward himself so as to be quite close and saying something in his ear, of which I only caught the words, Such is the good and true City or State, and the good and true man is of the same pattern and if this is right every other is wrong and the evil is one which affects not only the ordering of the State, but also the regulation of the individual

The republic book