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Full Idea
There is little to tell between good and bad people (e.g. cowards) in terms of how much pleasure and distress they experience.
Gist of Idea
Good and bad people seem to experience equal amounts of pleasure and pain
Source
Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 498c)
Book Ref
Plato: 'Gorgias', ed/tr. Waterfield,Robin [OUP World's Classics 1994], p.90
A Reaction
A very perceptive remark. If the good are people with empathy for others, then they may suffer more distress than the insensitive wicked.
| 134 | Good and bad people seem to experience equal amounts of pleasure and pain [Plato] |
| 361 | It is a mistake to think that the most violent pleasure or pain is therefore the truest reality [Plato] |
| 386 | Intense pleasure and pain are not felt in a good body, but in a worthless one [Plato] |
| 328 | Everything that takes place naturally is pleasant [Plato] |
| 49 | Character is revealed by the pleasures and pains people feel [Aristotle] |
| 53 | Feeling inappropriate pleasure or pain affects conduct, and is central to morality [Aristotle] |
| 3563 | Pleasure and virtue entail one another [Epicurus] |
| 506 | Immoderate desire is the mark of a child, not an adult [Democritus (attr)] |
| 5705 | Nature only wants two things: freedom from pain, and pleasure [Lucretius] |
| 13301 | We are scared of death - except when we are immersed in pleasure! [Seneca] |
| 1478 | Animals don't value pleasure, as they cease sexual intercourse after impregnation [Plutarch] |
| 3777 | Pleasure and pain control all human desires and duties [Bentham] |
| 24166 | Pleasure serves to maintain our relationship with its source [Cochrane] |