Plato, Meno 77b

παρʼ ἐμοῦ εἴληφας. δοκεῖ τοίνυν μοι, ὦ Σώκρατες, ἀρετὴ εἶναι, καθάπερ ὁ ποιητὴς λέγει, χαίρειν τε καλοῖσι καὶ δύνασθαι· καὶ ἐγὼ τοῦτο λέγω ἀρετήν, ἐπιθυμοῦντα τῶν καλῶν δυνατὸν εἶναι πορίζεσθαι. ἆρα λέγεις τὸν τῶν καλῶν ἐπιθυμοῦντα ἀγαθῶν ἐπιθυμητὴν εἶναι; μάλιστά γε. ἆρα ὡς ὄντων τινῶν οἳ τῶν κακῶν ἐπιθυμοῦσιν, ἑτέρων δὲ οἳ τῶν

whole and sound, and tell me what it is. The pattern you have now got from me. Well, in my view, Socrates, virtue is, in the poet’s words, to rejoice in things honorable and be able for them ; and that, I say, is virtue—to desire what is honorable and be able to procure it. Do you say that he who desires the honorable is desirous of the good? Certainly. Implying that there are some who desire the evil, and others the good? Do not all men,