[344a]
the man who has
the ability to overreach on a large scale. Consider this type of man, then,
if you wish to judge how much more profitable it is to him personally to be
unjust than to be just. And the easiest way of all to understand this matter
will be to turn to the most consummate form of injustice which makes the man
who has done the wrong most happy and those who are wronged and who would
not themselves willingly do wrong most miserable. And this is tyranny, which
both by stealth and by force takes away what belongs to others, both sacred
and profane, both private and public, not little by little but at one
swoop.1
1 The order of the words dramatically expressses Thrasymachus's excitement and the sweeping success of the tyrant.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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