Categoria: Hípias Maior

Socrates : “Then tell us again,” he will say, “from the beginning, [303e] since you failed this time ; what do you say that this ‘beautiful’, belonging to both the pleasures, is, on account of which you honored them before the rest and called them beautiful ?” It seems to me, Hippias, inevitable that we…

Socrates : And certainly many such cases appear before my mind, but I mistrust them because they do not appear to you, [300d] a man who has made more money by wisdom than anyone now living, but to me who never made any money at all ; and the thought disturbs me that you are…

Socrates : But it seems to me that I am so eager to know that I cannot wait for you while you delay ; for I believe I have just now found a way out. Just see; how would it help us towards our goal if we were to say that that is beautiful which…

Socrates : Then the beautiful is the cause of the good. [297a] Hippias : Yes, it is. Socrates : But surely, Hippias, the cause and that of which the cause is the cause are different ; for the cause could not well be the cause of the cause. But look at it in this way…

Socrates : Ah, don’t boast, Hippias. You see how much trouble it has caused us already ; I’m afraid it may get angry and run away more than ever.[295b] And yet that is nonsense ; for you, I think, will easily find it when you go away by yourself. But for Heaven’s sake, find it…

Socrates : “You think, then, what you did not say just now, that to bury one’s parents and be buried by one’s offspring is sometimes and for some persons disgraceful ; [293c] and it is still more impossible, as it seems, for this to become and to be beautiful for all, so that the same…

[291d] Hippias : I will tell you; for you seem to me to be seeking to reply that the beautiful is something of such sort that it will never appear ugly anywhere to anybody. Socrates : Certainly, Hippias; now you understand beautifully. Hippias : Listen, then ; for, mind you, if anyone has anything to…

Hippias : Well, certainly, Socrates, if that is what he is looking for, nothing is easier than to answer and tell him what the beautiful is, by which all other things are adorned and by the addition of which they are made to appear beautiful. [289e] So the fellow is very simple-minded and knows nothing…

Socrates : “Tell me, then, stranger,” he will say, “what is this, the beautiful ?” Hippias : Well, Socrates, does he who asks this question want to find out anything else than what is beautiful ? Socrates : I do not think that is what he wants to find out, [287e] but what the beautiful…