Q0005

Plato

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

Justice is doing one's own work and not meddling in others'.
Thinker Plato
School Platonism
Source Republic IV 433a
Theme Justice
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Republic IV 433a, within the tradition of Platonism. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of justice, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Plato's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Plato. (n.d.). Justice is doing one's own work and not meddling in others'. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0005

MLA: Plato. “Justice is doing one's own work and not….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0005.

Chicago: Plato. “Justice is doing one's own work and not….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0005.

Same thinker

More from Plato

  1. Love is the desire for the perpetual possession of the good.
  2. Let us not become haters of argument — that is a great danger to the soul.
  3. Extreme freedom seems to change into nothing but extreme slavery.
  4. Picture human beings as if living in an underground, cave-like dwelling.
  5. First, it always is, and neither comes to be nor perishes.

All quotations by Plato

Same theme

More on justice

  1. It is worse to do injustice than to suffer it.
  2. Those who have the Way receive much help; those who lose the Way receive little help.
  3. I say that the noble and good man and woman are happy, and the unjust and wicked are miserable.
  4. The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it…Reason…teaches all mankind…that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.
  5. One must never do injustice in any way.

Browse the justice theme