The Republic
Whereas, I said, they ought to be dangerous to their enemies, and gentle to their friends; if not, they will destroy themselves without waiting for their enemies to destroy them.
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The Republic
By Plato
A latest installment in the popular series that includes Red Seas Under Red Skies finds con man Locke Lamora's latest scrapes with fellow Gentleman Bastard Jean Tannen giving way to an increasingly audacious resolve to have an incredibly good time while robbing the world blind. With what should have been the greatest heist of their career gone spectacularly sour, Locke and his trusted partner, Jean, have barely escaped with their lives.
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Why this edition is available
Bite reviewed this specific edition as public domain using the source, jurisdiction records, and dated evidence below. Public domain is a legal status rather than a licence, and it may differ by country or edition.
- Edition
- Project Gutenberg eBook #1497 — Benjamin Jowett English translation
- Source text
- Open the source edition
- Review coverage
- 44 jurisdictions · latest check 31 Aug 2026
Review all jurisdiction evidenceauthor Plato died -347; translator; author of Introduction and Analysis Benjamin Jowett died 1893. All identified copyright-relevant edition contributors are beyond the conservative expiry cutoff applied from the cited jurisdictional duration rule as of 2026-08-31.
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A look inside
1074 / 4715Explore public samples
Read passages from The Republic. Each sample opens without an account.
- How Power Corrupts
- Fear Among Captors
- The Cost of Discord
- Light a Candle for Justice
- Philosophers and Kings
- When Lying Is a Ruler's Privilege
- An Art to Reorient the Eye
- When Family and State Become One
- How One Hurt Ripples Through the Whole
- Why a Hero Chose Obscurity
- The Idea of the Good
- Justice as a compromise
- When Reason Sleeps
- The Pull of the Upper World
- When death makes guilt awake
- When Riches Demand Your Soul
- At the Sun of the Good
- When Freedom Breeds Slavery
- Seeing the Sun
- Why Reluctant Rulers Rule Best
- Lean Dogs or Fat Sheep?
- When Philosophers Don't Rule
- A Magnificent Lie for the State
- How Wealth Divides a People
- The Turn to Being
- Can justice be praised on its own?
- When Protectors Become Tyrants
- We Love Being Moved
- When Wisdom Serves Evil
- Tasting Ideas, Missing Justice
- Propertyless Guardians
- How 'Mine' Tears Cities Apart
- When Licence Topples Rights
- Blinded by the Sun
- Raised on Complaint
- Raised on Flattery
- Thrice-Removed Imitation
- A Return from the Dead
- From Chains to Sunlight
- Learning to See
- Who benefits from justice?
- Fighting for Shadows
- What skill must rulers possess?
- How Music Forms the Soul
- Blinded by the Light
- Repair, Don't Lament
- Why War Demands a Lifetime's Work
- The Ascent and Return
- When Art Strengthens Passion
- When Riches Tip the Scales
- Philosophers as Kings
- Gentle to Friends, Dangerous to Foes
- When Vice Seems Rewarding
- When a state chooses luxury
- Er Returned
- Forging the Human Image
- One Will, One City
- Garlands for the Imitator
- What Corrupt Gods Teach Youth
- The Tyrant's Poverty
- The Compulsion to Gaze at Horror
- The Small Remnant
- Why We Enjoy Misery
- Who May Prescribe Lies?
- Justice as Inner Harmony
- Choosing a Life
- Back from the Heights
- Gyges' Ring: Would You Remain Just?
- See Truth Once Freed From Appetite
- When Conceit Locks the Gate
- Love Poetry, But Beware
- The Impossible Guardian
- All Pleasures the Same?
- Punishment as Cure
- When Souls Choose Their Lives
- God and the Origin of Evil
- Philosophy as ascent
- The Ship of State
- The Pressure of the Crowd
- Fattened on the Table
- Bewildered Eyes
- When Poetry Undermines Reason
- Justice and Power
- The Helmsman and the Sailors
- When Madness Commands the Soul
- When Wisdom Is Mob Taste
- Lies as Medicine
- Shadows on the Wall
- When Light Hurts
- The Mutiny Against Wisdom
- Power's Prison
- Common Families for Guardians
- From protector to tyrant
- The Best Unjust Man
- The Cost of Seeing the Light
- Where Is Your Gaze?