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I know, I said, that this is their manner of thinking, and that

this was the thesis which Thrasymachus was maintaining just now,

when he censured justice and praised injustice. But I am too

stupid to be convinced by him.

I wish, he said, that you would hear me as well as him, and then

I shall see whether you and I agree. For Thrasymachus seems to

me, like a snake, to have been charmed by your voice sooner than

he ought to have been; but to my mind the nature of justice and

injustice have not yet been made clear. Setting aside their

rewards and results, I want to know what they are in themselves,

and how they inwardly work in the soul. If you, please, then, I

will revive the argument of Thrasymachus. And first I will speak

of the nature and origin of justice according to the common view

of them. Secondly, I will show that all men who practise justice

do so against their will, of necessity, but not as a good. And

thirdly, I will argue that there is reason in this view, for the

life of the unjust is after all better far than the life of the

just-if what they say is true, Socrates, since I myself am not of

their opinion.