Q0224

Plato

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

I say that the noble and good man and woman are happy, and the unjust and wicked are miserable.
Thinker Plato
School Platonism
Source Gorgias 470e
Theme Happiness
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Gorgias 470e, 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 happiness, 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.). I say that the noble and good man and woman are happy, and the unjust and wicked are miserable. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0224

MLA: Plato. “I say that the noble and good man….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0224.

Chicago: Plato. “I say that the noble and good man….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0224.

Same thinker

More from Plato

  1. Justice is doing one's own work and not meddling in others'.
  2. Love is the desire for the perpetual possession of the good.
  3. Let us not become haters of argument — that is a great danger to the soul.
  4. Extreme freedom seems to change into nothing but extreme slavery.
  5. Picture human beings as if living in an underground, cave-like dwelling.

All quotations by Plato

Same theme

More on happiness

  1. The human good is activity of soul in accordance with virtue.
  2. Of all that wisdom provides for the happiness of a whole life, by far the greatest is the possession of friendship.
  3. It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.
  4. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
  5. The secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions…be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.

Browse the happiness theme