Quotes About Ethics

And that only these two things, true belief and knowledge, guide correctly, and that if a man possesses these he gives correct guidance. The things that turn out right by some chance are not due to human guidance, but where there is correct human guidance it is due to two things, true belief or knowledge.

And so they grow richer and richer, and the more they think of making a fortune the less they think of virtue; for when riches and virtue are placed together in the scales of the balance the one always rises as the other falls.

I believe that Periander or Perdiccas or Xerxes or Ismenias the Theban, or some other rich and mighty man, who had a great opinion of his own power, was the first to say that justice is 'doing good to your friends and harm to your enemies.

En todos los respectos, pues, el alabador de la justi­cia dirá verdad y mentirá el de la injusticia. Ya se mire al placer, ya a la buena fama, ya al provecho, el que encomia lo justo acierta y el que lo censura no dice nada en razón y ni siquiera conoce lo que censura.

It has been objected that justice is honesty in the sense of Glaucon and Adeimantus, but is taken by Socrates to mean all virtue.

Pues a mi, ni Méleto ni Ánito pueden ocasionarme ningún mal, aunque se lo propusieran. ¿Cómo pueden hacerlo, si estoy plenamente convencido de que un hombre malvado jamás puede perjudicar a un hombre justo?

Y no diremos también, amigo, que los hombres, al ser dañados, se hacen peores en lo que toca a la virtud humana? -Ni más ni menos. -¿ Y la justicia no es virtud humana? -También esto es forzoso. -Necesario es, por tanto, querido amigo, que los hombres que reciben daño se hagan más injustos. -Eso parece.

SOCRATES: And is then all that is just pious? Or is all that is pious just, but not all that is just pious, but some of it is and some is not? [12] EUTHYPHRO: I do not follow what you are saying, Socrates.

no one is willing to govern; because no one likes to take in hand the reformation of evils which are not his concern without renumeration.

the just does not desire more than his like but more than his unlike, whereas the unjust desires more than both his like and unlike

el amor, como dije antes, no es bello ni feo por sí mismo. Es bello si se ama obedeciendo a las leyes de la honorabilidad, y feo si se ama faltando a ellas; porque no es honrado conceder sus favores a un hombre vicioso y por malos motivos, y es honorable rendirse por buenas causas al amor de un hombre que practica la virtud.

The son of Ariston (the best) is of opinion that the best and justest of men is also the happiest, and that this is he who is the most royal master of himself; and that the unjust man is he who is the greatest tyrant of himself and of his State. And I add further—'seen or unseen by gods or men.' This

Surely the gods are just? Granted that they are. But if so, the unjust will be the enemy of the gods, and the just will be their friend?

No creo que el cuerpo, por bien constituido que esté, domine por su perfección al alma buena; por el contrario, creo que el alma, cuando es buena, imprime al cuerpo, como un efecto de su propia excelencia, toda la perfección de que es capaz." (Platón, República).

but I want you to put him down.

Do not expect justice where might is right.

The argument of the Republic is the search after Justice

Examina si estas otras cosas no corrompen a los demás trabajadores hasta el punto de ocasionar su perversión. -¿Y cuáles son ellas? -La riqueza -contesté- y la indigencia.

Deixa que te desprezem, te considerem insensato, te insultem, se quiserem, e até, por Zeus, sofre que te esbofeteiem, coisa que tu achas entre todas infamante: não te acontecerá nenhum mal se fores realmente um homem de bem, dedicado à prática da virtude.

the Thirty sent for me" says Socrates ". . .and ordered [me] to bring Leon the Salaminian to be put to death. . .I, however, showed again, by action, not in word only, that I did not care a whit for death. . .but that I did care with all my might not to do anything unjust or unholy… For that government, with all its power, did not frighten me into doing anything unjust…I simply went home.

Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws - Plato

Both knowledge and truth are beautiful things, but the good is other and more beautiful than they.

Adic? socoÈ›i dreptatea un defect? - Nu, ci doar o nobil? neghiobie. (Trachymarchos în Republica, de Platon)

Once you have the means of life, you must practice virtue.