Dialogue I
On Justice
Justice is a kind of health of the soul. — Plato
My dear friend, I have long wished to ask you this: What is justice? For I hear the word often, from many, and in many ways, but I would learn from you what thing it truly is.
Socrates, you ask what even the many who speak cleverly are unable to tell. Yet since you ask, I will not refuse. I think justice is this: to do good to one’s friends and to harm one’s enemies.
Then justice, as you say, is doing harm?
Not harm for its own sake, but as a return for wrong.
And is it just to return wrong for wrong? Tell me, if a man were to strike you, would it be just that you strike him in return?
No, by Zeus, not just.