“ The powers of action and feeling are necessarily weaker and more balanced when they are diffused through a community ”
Plato, The Republic. copy citation
Author | Plato |
---|---|
Source | The Republic |
Topic | action power |
Date | |
Language | English |
Reference | |
Note | Translated by Benjamin Jowett |
Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1497/1497-h/1497-h.htm |
Context
“The movement of a body of men can never have the pliancy or facility of a single man; the freedom of the individual, which is always limited, becomes still more straitened when transferred to a nation. The powers of action and feeling are necessarily weaker and more balanced when they are diffused through a community; whence arises the often discussed question, 'Can a nation, like an individual, have a conscience?' We hesitate to say that the characters of nations are nothing more than the sum of the characters of the individuals who compose them;”
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