Dialogue

  1 Euthyd|   philosophers, seem to be quite as good reasoners as those who have.
  2 Euthyd|            follows:—~All men desire good; and good means the possession
  3 Euthyd|            All men desire good; and good means the possession of
  4 Euthyd|            enumeration the greatest good of all is omitted. What
  5 Euthyd|           is omitted. What is that? Good fortune. But what need is
  6 Euthyd|           But what need is there of good fortune when we have wisdom
  7 Euthyd|         themselves they are neither good nor evil— knowledge and
  8 Euthyd|             and wisdom are the only good, and ignorance and folly
  9 Euthyd|            Since wisdom is the only good, he must become a philosopher,
 10 Euthyd|            two Sophists a lesson of good manners. But he is quickly
 11 Euthyd|             goods which are neither good nor evil: and if we say
 12 Euthyd|          say again that it makes us good, there is no answer to the
 13 Euthyd|            answer to the question, ‘good in what?’ At length in despair
 14 Euthyd|          that ‘he does not know the good to be unjust.’ Socrates
 15 Euthyd|    consequences which follow: ‘Much good has your father got out
 16 Euthyd|       unabashed, ‘nobody wants much good.’ Medicine is a good, arms
 17 Euthyd|           much good.’ Medicine is a good, arms are a good, money
 18 Euthyd|      Medicine is a good, arms are a good, money is a good, and yet
 19 Euthyd|         arms are a good, money is a good, and yet there may be too
 20 Euthyd|      ignorant that the union of two good things which have different
 21 Euthyd|            with the remark that the good in all professions are few,
 22 Euthyd|        describes them as making two good things, philosophy and politics,
 23 Euthyd|           all about war,—all that a good general ought to know about
 24 Euthyd|           one thing,—can you make a good man of him only who is already
 25 Euthyd|           wish that you would be so good as to defer the other part
 26 Euthyd|         that he should become truly good. His name is Cleinias, and
 27 Euthyd|           another of the same sort.~Good heavens, I said; and your
 28 Euthyd|           your last question was so good!~Like all our other questions,
 29 Euthyd|            be happy if we have many good things? And this, perhaps,
 30 Euthyd|            what things do we esteem good? No solemn sage is required
 31 Euthyd|           will say that wealth is a good.~Certainly, he said.~And
 32 Euthyd|             there be any doubt that good birth, and power, and honours
 33 Euthyd|         happy and fortunate if many good things were present with
 34 Euthyd|           reason of the presence of good things, if they profited
 35 Euthyd|        happy must not only have the good things, but he must also
 36 Euthyd|           well as the possession of good things, is that sufficient
 37 Euthyd|          and the other is neither a good nor an evil. You admit that?~
 38 Euthyd|             man, if he have neither good sense nor wisdom? Would
 39 Euthyd|       themselves, but the degree of good and evil in them depends
 40 Euthyd|             that wisdom is the only good, and ignorance the only
 41 Euthyd|            only which will make him good and happy, and what that
 42 Euthyd| truth-speaking persons.~And are not good things good, and evil things
 43 Euthyd|             And are not good things good, and evil things evil?~He
 44 Euthyd|             they are?~Yes.~Then the good speak evil of evil things,
 45 Euthyd|             I can tell you that the good speak evil of the evil.~
 46 Euthyd|            in such a way as to make good and sensible men out of
 47 Euthyd|             man and turn him into a good one—if they know this (and
 48 Euthyd|             if he will only make me good.~Ctesippus said: And I,
 49 Euthyd|           you prepared to make that good?~Certainly, he said.~Well,
 50 Euthyd|            of answering. But if, my good sir, you admit that I am
 51 Euthyd|          knowledge which will do us good?~Certainly, he said.~And
 52 Euthyd|             it when made, be of any good to us. Am I not right?~He
 53 Euthyd|             have any sense in them.~Good, I said, fairest and wisest
 54 Euthyd|        Dionysodorus. I dare say, my good Crito, that they may have
 55 Euthyd|             Socrates, by some one a good deal superior, as I should
 56 Euthyd|          art which is the source of good government, and which may
 57 Euthyd|       surely it ought to do us some good?~CRITO: Certainly, Socrates.~
 58 Euthyd|            of some kind is the only good.~CRITO: Yes, that was what
 59 Euthyd|          tranquillity, were neither good nor evil in themselves;
 60 Euthyd|            which is likely to do us good, and make us happy.~CRITO:
 61 Euthyd|        kingly art make men wise and good?~CRITO: Why not, Socrates?~
 62 Euthyd|             works which are neither good nor evil, and gives no knowledge,
 63 Euthyd|            we are to make other men good?~CRITO: By all means.~SOCRATES:
 64 Euthyd|            And in what will they be good and useful? Shall we repeat
 65 Euthyd|          that they will make others good, and that these others will
 66 Euthyd|  determining in what they are to be good; for we have put aside the
 67 Euthyd|            doubt your power to make good your words unless you have
 68 Euthyd|             Euthydemus, as that the good are unjust; come, do I know
 69 Euthyd|            What do I know?~That the good are not unjust.~Quite true,
 70 Euthyd|          where did I learn that the good are unjust?~Nowhere, said
 71 Euthyd|         Please not to interrupt, my good friend, or prevent Euthydemus
 72 Euthyd|       proving to me that I know the good to be unjust; such a lesson
 73 Euthyd|          Not by the same father, my good man, I said, for Chaeredemus
 74 Euthyd|          begat such wise sons? much good has this father of you and
 75 Euthyd|    Ctesippus, have any need of much good.~And have you no need, Euthydemus?
 76 Euthyd|          Ctesippus, if you think it good or evil for a man who is
 77 Euthyd|          armed rather than unarmed.~Good, I say. And yet I know that
 78 Euthyd|            you admit medicine to be good for a man to drink, when
 79 Euthyd|         when wanted, must it not be good for him to drink as much
 80 Euthyd|            in war to have arms is a good thing, he ought to have
 81 Euthyd|             possession of gold is a good thing?~Yes, said Ctesippus,
 82 Euthyd|          everywhere and always is a good?~Certainly, a great good,
 83 Euthyd|            good?~Certainly, a great good, he said.~And you admit
 84 Euthyd|          And you admit gold to be a good?~Certainly, he replied.~
 85 Euthyd|           said Euthydemus.~Then, my good friend, do they all speak?~
 86 Euthyd|            brother seem to me to be good workmen in your own department,
 87 Euthyd|            he, is the business of a good workman? tell me, in the
 88 Euthyd|          was certain that something good would come out of the questions,
 89 Euthyd|            I said, do not be rough; good words, if you please; in
 90 Euthyd|             differences, whether of good and evil, white or black,
 91 Euthyd|        prove the philosophers to be good for nothing, no one will
 92 Euthyd|          one of these two things is good and the other evil, are
 93 Euthyd|           are in a mean between two good things which do not tend
 94 Euthyd|           political action are both good, but tend to different ends,
 95 Euthyd|           either; or, if the one be good and the other evil, they
 96 Euthyd|            about marrying a wife of good family to be the mother
 97 Euthyd|      inferior sort are numerous and good for nothing, and the good
 98 Euthyd|           good for nothing, and the good are few and beyond all price:
 99 Euthyd|          teachers of philosophy are good or bad, but think only of
100 Euthyd|            the saying is, and be of good cheer.~THE END~