Self-control

And though shamelessness and not shrinking from shameful actions is base, this does not prove that to be ashamed when one a does shameful acts is virtuous— any more than Self-restraint is a virtue, and not rather a mixture of virtue and vice.

It is clear then from these considerations that Self-restraint is a good quality and Unrestraint a bad one.

(a) that Self-restraint and Endurance are good and praiseworthy dispositions, Unrestraint and Softness bad and blameworthy;

and it greatly conduces to their learning self-control that they see their elders also living temperately day by day.

This they do for the sake of guarding the city and of developing their powers of self-control;

but the road to satiety is much more simple and direct in our country than with you;

it is not easy to control yourself once you meddle with that sort of thing.

In the first place, apart from what I have said, in control of his own passions and appetites he was the strictest of men;

Thus in the matter of carnal appetite, he held that those whose passions were not under complete control should limit themselves to such indulgence as the soul would reject unless the need of the body were pressing, and such as would do no harm when the need was there.

And according to this account the temperate man among us is dear to God, for he is like;

for self-control is the greatest gift of God.

But our nature, being passionate, needs self-control, through which, being trained toward the condition of small need, it tries to draw near in disposition to the divine nature.

Self-control is the virtue of the appetitive part, by which they restrain with reason the appetite that strives after base pleasures.

It belongs to self-control to be able to restrain with reason the appetite that strives toward base enjoyments and pleasures;

the virtues of the appetitive part are temperance and self-control;

but with good order, decorum, by showing yourselves temperate and steadfast.

Formerly, then, your city was renowned for good order and temperance and produced such men;

but temperance and mind are the things that save.

Oh, by how great errors are men possessed, who long to extend their right of dominion across the seas, and judge themselves most fortunate if they hold many provinces with their soldiery and add new ones to the old, ignorant of what that mighty realm, equal to the gods, may be!

To rule oneself is the greatest dominion.

Temperance commands the pleasures, some it hates and drives away, others it dispenses and reduces to a sound measure, nor does it ever come to them for their own sake.

Temperance is the slightness of the appetitive faculty's longing for bodily pleasures, such that abstaining from what intellect and the revealed law blame comes easily to it.

But, I think, so long as the boy is not his own master and is as yet unable to discern who is a genuine friend, and who is not, the law teaches the lover self-control, and makes him defer the words of friendship till the other is older and has reached years of discretion;

the defendant should suffer it because he is unwilling to restrain his own lewdness.

Is it not perfectly plain that the man who makes such demands must himself necessarily be furnishing in return certain pleasures to the men who are spending their money on him?

From which it is understood that intemperance is not to be shunned for its own sake, nor temperance sought for its own sake, but because the latter procures greater pleasures.

And by the same reasoning we shall say that not even temperance is to be sought for its own sake, but because it brings peace to our minds and soothes and calms them, as it were, with a certain harmony.

As, then, temperance calms the cravings and brings it about that they obey right reason, and preserves the considered judgements of the mind, so intemperance, hostile to it, inflames, confounds, rouses the whole state of the mind;

and this is the virtue of the mind, which some say is temperance itself, others say is something obedient to the precepts of temperance and following it, having no form of its own;

All men would agree with me, I believe, that it is of the utmost importance for young men of your age to possess beauty in respect of person, self-discipline in respect of soul, and manliness in respect of both, and consistently to possess charm in respect of speech.

As for discreetness of conduct, it is my privilege to pass the finest of compliments, namely, that though such youthfulness readily invites scandal, it has been your lot to be praised instead.

Now touching your admirers, if it is right to speak also of these, you seem to me to deport yourself so admirably and sensibly toward them, that, though most of them cannot be patient even with the object of their preference, you succeed in pleasing them all exceedingly.

I have become somehow sobered, changing from my former state of mind.

Soundness of mind and reverence for the affairs of the gods is best;

For I I think you would all agree that the most sovereign of the virtues are temperance and justice, since not only do they benefit us in themselves, but, if we should be minded to look into the natures, powers, and uses of human relations, we would find that those which do not partake of these qualities are the causes of great evils, whereas those which are attended by temperance and justice are …

However, we ought not to test all the virtues in the same set of conditions, but should test justice when a man is in want, temperance when he is in power, continence when he is in the prime of youth.

and I showed my self-control in both circumstances at an age in which we find that the great majority of men most frequently go morally astray.

For while the result of indolence and love of surfeit is that pain follows on the heels of pleasure, on the other hand, devoted toil in the pursuit of virtue, and self-control in the ordering of one’s life always yield delights that are pure and more abiding.

Practice self-control in all the things by which it is shameful for the soul to be controlled, namely, gain, temper, pleasure, and pain.

Consider that no adornment so becomes you as modesty, justice, and self-control;

and courage and self-restraint and justice and, in short, true virtue exist only with wisdom, whether pleasures and fears and other things of that sort are added or taken away.

For, said Socrates, if you care to consider the courage and the self-restraint of other men, you will see that they are absurd.

We say, to be sure, that this is impossible, nevertheless their foolish self-restraint amounts to little more than this;

And for the multitude are not the main points of self-control these—to be obedient to their rulers and themselves to be rulers over the bodily appetites and pleasures of food, drink, and the rest?

—do you think the hearing of that sort of thing will conduce to a young man’s temperance or self-control?

Drunkenness, he thought, should be avoided like madness, overeating like idleness.

Yet when Megabates attempted to kiss him, Agesilaus resisted his advances with all his might — an act of punctilious moderation surely!

Megabates, feeling himself slighted, tried no more to kiss him, and Agesilaus approached one of his companions with a request that he would persuade Megabates to show him honour once again.

so you tell us whether you know of any one who under my influence has fallen from piety into impiety, or from sober into wanton conduct, or from moderation in living into extravagance, or from temperate drinking into sottishness, or from strenuousness into effeminacy, or has been overcome of any other base pleasure.

First, who is there in your knowledge that is less a slave to his bodily appetites than I am?

And how could I be corrupting the young by habituating them to fortitude and frugality?

Well, I think you have told me quite enough about such passions as these, and when I examine myself I find, I think, that I have them fairly well under control;

And very vicious rulers they are too, as you yourself must see, if at least you regard idleness and moral cowardice and negligence as vice.

Ah, Critobulus, we must fight for our freedom against these tyrants as persistently as if they were armed men trying to enslave us.

For this reason I maintain that one who intends to possess the power of self-control must refrain from kissing those in the bloom of beauty.

For since we handsome men exert a certain inspiration upon the amorous, we make them more generous in money matters, more strenuous and heroic amid dangers, yes, and more modest and self-controlled also;

But now, Critobulus, said he, in the presence of all these witnesses I warn you not to lay a finger on me until you get as much hair on your chin as you have on your head.