To live as long as possible?
CalliclesI don’t know how you twist the arguments up and down every time, Socrates. Or don’t you know that this man who imitates will kill that man who does not imitate, if he wants, and take away his property?
SocratesI do know, Callicles, my good fellow, unless I am deaf, since I have heard it from you and from Polus many times just now, and from almost everyone else in the city. But you listen to me too: he will kill him, yes, if he wants, but a wicked man killing one who is fine and good.
CalliclesThen isn’t that the very thing that is infuriating?
SocratesNot to a man who has sense, at least, as the argument shows. Or do you think a person ought to prepare himself for this, to live for as long as possible, and to practise those arts that always save us from dangers, like the one you tell me to practise, rhetoric, which saves us in the lawcourts?
CalliclesYes, by Zeus, and I’m right to advise you to.