Plato, Alcibiades 1, section 116a

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[116a] so you must call it good because of the good it produces.

Alcibiades
I believe that is so.

Socrates
And again, are they noble inasmuch as they are good, and base inasmuch as they are evil?

Alcibiades
Yes.

Socrates
Then in saying that the rescue of one's friends in battle is noble and yet evil, you mean just the same as if you called the rescue good, but evil.

Alcibiades
I believe what you say is true, Socrates.

Socrates
So nothing noble, in so far as it is noble, is evil, and nothing base, in so far as it is base, is good.

Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 8 translated by W.R.M. Lamb. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1955.

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