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Ideas of Critias, by Text

[Greek, c.480 - 403 BCE, Born in Athens. A sophist.]

440BCE fragments/reports
B09 p.155 Virtue comes more from habit than character
     Full Idea: More men are good through habit than through character.
     From: Critias (fragments/reports [c.440 BCE], B09), quoted by John Stobaeus - Anthology 3.29.41
B25 p.157 Fear of the gods was invented to discourage secret sin
     Full Idea: When the laws forbade men to commit open crimes of violence, and they began to do them in secret, a wise and clever man invented fear of the gods for mortals, to frighten the wicked, even if they sin in secret.
     From: Critias (fragments/reports [c.440 BCE], B25), quoted by Sextus Empiricus - Against the Professors (six books) 9.54