“ Can justice produce injustice any more than the art of horsemanship can make bad horsemen, or heat produce cold? ”
Plato, The Republic. copy citation
| Author | Plato |
|---|---|
| Source | The Republic |
| Topic | justice heat |
| Date | |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | Translated by Benjamin Jowett |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1497/1497-h/1497-h.htm |
Context
“The answer is, that we must do good to our seeming and real good friends, and evil to our seeming and real evil enemies—good to the good, evil to the evil. But ought we to render evil for evil at all, when to do so will only make men more evil? Can justice produce injustice any more than the art of horsemanship can make bad horsemen, or heat produce cold? The final conclusion is, that no sage or poet ever said that the just return evil for evil; this was a maxim of some rich and mighty man, Periander, Perdiccas, or Ismenias the Theban (about B.C. 398-381)”
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