Dialogue

 1 Intro| contradiction. First the poet says,~‘Hard is it to become good,’~and
 2 Intro|           Pittacus for having said, ‘Hard is it to be good.’ How is
 3 Intro|           Then the word difficult or hard is explained to mean ‘evil’
 4 Intro|              Pittacus had a saying, ‘Hard is it to be good:’ and Simonides,
 5 Intro|              says he, Pittacus; not ‘hard to be good,’ but ‘hard to
 6 Intro|               hard to be good,’ but ‘hard to become good.’ Socrates
 7  Prot|              with hoofs and hair and hard and callous skins under
 8  Prot|          certain way like black, and hard is like soft, and the most
 9  Prot|             not understand the word ‘hard’ (chalepon) in the sense
10  Prot|           Ceans, when they spoke of ‘hard’ meant ‘evil,’ or something
11  Prot|               Prodicus, by the term ‘hard’?~Evil, said Prodicus.~And
12  Prot|         blames Pittacus for saying, ‘Hard is the good,’ just as if
13  Prot|         Simonides in using the word ‘hard’ meant what all of us mean,
14  Prot|            approbation of the wise, ‘Hard is it to be good.’ And Simonides,
15  Prot|          only that to become good is hard, he inserted (Greek) ‘on
16  Prot|           one hand to become good is hard’); there would be no reason
17  Prot|        Pittacus. Pittacus is saying ‘Hard is it to be good,’ and he,
18  Prot|               rejoins that the truly hard thing, Pittacus, is to become
19  Prot|               with ‘good,’ but with ‘hard.’ Not, that the hard thing
20  Prot|           with ‘hard.’ Not, that the hard thing is to be truly good,
21  Prot|            friends,’ says Pittacus, ‘hard is it to be good,’ and Simonides
22  Prot|               without a flaw—that is hard truly.’ This way of reading
23  Prot|               Pittacus, are saying, ‘Hard is it to be good.’ Now there