Jowett: act justly

[134d] Socrates   : For you and the state, if you act justly and temperately, will act so as to please God. ALCIBIADES I

Str. And this we believe to be the origin of the tyrant and the king, of oligarchies, and aristocracies, and democracies — because men are offended at the one monarch, and can never be made to believe that any one can be worthy of such authority, or is able and willing in the spirit of virtue and knowledge to act justly and holily to all ; they fancy that he will be a despot who will wrong and harm and slay whom he pleases of us ; for if there could be such a despot as we describe, they would acknowledge that we ought to be too glad to have him, and that he alone would be the happy ruler of a true and perfect State. STATESMAN

Seeing me not at all inclined to stay, he devised the following scheme to make me stay during that sading season. On the next day he came to me and made a plausible proposal : "Let us put an end," he said, "to these constant quarrels between you and me about Dion and his affairs. For your sake I will do this for Dion. I require him to take his own property and reside in the Peloponnese, not as an exile, but on the understanding that it is open for him to migrate here, when this step has the joint approval of himself, me, and you his friends ; and this shall be open to him on the understanding that he does not plot against me. You and your friends and Dion’s friends here must be sureties for him in this, and he must give you security. Let the funds which he receives be deposited in the Peloponnese and at Athens, with persons approved by you, and let Dion enjoy the income from them but have no power to take them out of deposit without the approval of you and your friends. For I have no great confidence in him, that, if he has this property at his disposal, he will act justly towards me, for it will be no small amount ; but I have more confidence in you and your friends. See if this satisfies you ; and on these conditions remain for the present year, and at the next season you shall depart taking the property with you. I am quite sure that Dion will be grateful to you, if you accomplish so much on his behalf." LETTERS LETTER VII

Still our old question of the comparative advantage of justice and injustice has not been answered : Which is the more profitable, to be just and act justly and practise virtue, whether seen or unseen of gods and men, or to be unjust and act unjustly, if only unpunished and unreformed ? THE REPUBLIC   BOOK IV