"In my opinion the true and healthy constitution of the State is the one which I have described. But if you wish also to see a State at fever heat, I have no objection. For I suspect that many will not be satisfied with the simpler way of life. They will be for adding … dainties, and perfumes, and incense, and courtesans, and cakes, all these not of one sort only, but in every variety … And we shall want more servants. Will not tutors be also in request, and nurses wet and dry, tirewomen and barbers, as well as confectioners and cooks; and swineherds, too, who were not needed and therefore had no place in the former edition of our State, but are needed now? They must not be forgotten: and there will be animals of many other kinds, if people eat them. Certainly. And living in this way we shall have much greater need of physicians than before? Much greater. And the country which was enough to support the original inhabitants will be too small now, and not enough? Quite true. Then a slice of our neighbours' land will be wanted by us for pasture and tillage, and they will want a slice of ours, if, like ourselves, they exceed the limit of necessity, and give themselves up to the unlimited accumulation of wealth? That, Socrates, will be inevitable. And so we shall go to war, Glaucon. Shall we not? Most certainly, he replied. Then without determining as yet whether war does good or harm, thus much we may affirm, that now we have discovered war to be derived from causes which are also the causes of almost all the evils in States, private as well as public."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
372e-373e
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Republic_(Plato)
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Republic (Plato)
87 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Republic (Plato) →
Related Quotes
"Once I was with the poet Sophocles when someone asked: 'How's your sex life, Sophocles? Are you still able to enjoy a…"
"So, Socrates, the cause of a person's attitude toward these desires is also the cause of his family's attitude toward…"
"If Polemarchus and I are making a mistake in our investigation it isn't intentional. If we were searching for gold, y…"
"Well, even you must know that cities are governed either as tyrannies, democracies, or aristocracies. Of course, I sa…"
"But tell me, this physician of whom you were just speaking, is he a moneymaker, an earner of fees, or a healer of the…"
"When there is an income tax, the just man will pay more and the unjust less on the same amount of income."
"Tyranny is not a matter of minor theft and violence, but of wholesale plunder, sacred and profane, private or public.…"
"Mankind censure injustice fearing that they may be the victims of it, and not because they shrink from committing it."
"τῆς δὲ ζημίας μεγίστη τὸ ὑπὸ πονηροτέρου ἄρχεσθαι, ἐὰν μὴ αὐτὸς ἐθέλῃ ἄρχειν"
"A few of us old fellows get together now and then, like regular birds of a feather. Most of us sit and cry about the …"