Socrates: And the unjust and utterly bad man is the reverse?
Protarchus: True.
Socrates: And all men, as we were saying just now, are always filled with hopes?
Protarchus: Certainly.
Socrates: And these hopes, as they are termed, are propositions which exist in the minds of each of us?
Protarchus: Yes.
Socrates: And the fancies of hope are also pictured in us; a man may often have a vision of a heap of gold, and pleasures ensuing, and in the picture there may be a likeness of himself mightily rejoicing over his good fortune.
Protarchus: True.
Socrates: And may we not say that the good, being friends of the gods, have generally true pictures presented to them, and the bad false pictures?
Protarchus: Certainly.
Socrates: The bad, too, have pleasures painted in their fancy as well as the good; but I presume that they are false pleasures.
Protarchus: They are.
Socrates: The bad then commonly delight in false pleasures, and the good in true pleasures?
Protarchus: Doubtless.
Socrates: Then upon this view there are false pleasures in the souls of men which are a ludicrous imitation of the true, and there are pains of a similar character?
Protarchus: There are.
Socrates: And did we not allow that a man who had an opinion at all had a real opinion, but often about things which had no existence either in the past, present, or future?
Protarchus: Quite true.
Socrates: And this was the source of false opinion and opining; am I not right?
Protarchus: Yes.
Socrates: And must we not attribute to pleasure and pain a similar real but illusory character?
Protarchus: How do you mean?
Socrates: I mean to say that a man must be admitted to have real pleasure who is pleased with anything or anyhow; and he may be pleased about things which neither have nor have ever had any real existence, and, more often than not, are never likely to exist.
Protarchus: Yes, Socrates, that again is undeniable.
Socrates: And may not the same be said about fear and anger and the like; are they not often false?