republic (books 1 - 5)   

But if they abstained from injuring one another, then they
might act together better?

Yes.

And this is because injustice creates divisions and hatreds
and fighting, and justice imparts harmony and friendship; is
not that true, Thrasymachus?

I agree, he said, because I do not wish to quarrel with you.

How good of you, I said; but I should like to know also
whether injustice, having this tendency to arouse hatred, wher-
ever existing, among slaves or among freemen, will not make
them hate one another and set them at variance and render them
incapable of common action?

Certainly.

And even if injustice be found in two only, will they not
quarrel and fight, and become enemies to one another and to
the just?

They will.

And suppose injustice abiding in a single person, would
your wisdom say that she loses or that she retains her natural
power?

Let us assume that she retains her power.

Yet is not the power which injustice exercises of such a
nature that wherever she takes up her abode, whether in a city,
in an army, in a family, or in any other body, that body is, to
begin with, rendered incapable of united action by reason of
sedition and distraction? and does it not become its own enemy
and at variance with all that opposes it, and with the just? Is
not this the case?

Yes, certainly.

And is not injustice equally fatal when existing in a single
person--in the first place rendering him incapable of action
because he is not at unity with himself, and in the second place
making him an enemy to himself and the just? Is not that
true, Thrasymachus?

Yes.
And, O my friend, I said, surely the gods are just?

Granted that they are.
But, if so, the unjust will be the enemy of the gods, and the
just will be their friends?

Feast away in triumph, and take your fill of the argument;
I will not oppose you, lest I should displease the company.
Well, then, proceed with your answers, and let me have the
remainder of my repast. For we have already shown that the
just are clearly wiser and better and abler than the unjust, and
that the unjust are incapable of common action; nay, more, that
to speak as we did of men who are evil acting at any time vig-
orously together, is not strictly true, for, if they had been per-
fectly evil, they would have laid hands upon one another; but
it is evident that there must have been some remnant of justice