Plato, Gorgias VII

Suffering the just punishment

Recall, Polus said that the orator and the tyrant do what seems good or what seems best to them as opposed what is best for them means that they do not do what they wish because what they wish to do is what is best for them. At reaching this conclusion, Polus becomes agitated: “As if indeed you, Socrates, would not welcome the possibility of your doing what seemed good to you in the city, rather than not, and would not feel envy when you see someone killing whomever it seemed good to him or confiscating possessions or putting him in fetters.”