Is not his case utterly miserable? and does not the actual tyrant lead a worse life than he whose life you determined to be the worst? Certainly. He who is the real tyrant, whatever men may think, is the real slave, and is obliged to practise the greatest adulation and servility, and to be the flatterer of the vilest of mankind. He has desires which he is utterly unable to satisfy, and has more wants than any one, and is truly poor, if you know how to inspect the whole soul of him: all his life long he is beset with fear and is full of convulsions, and distractions, even as the State which he resembles: and surely the resemblance holds? Very true, he said. Moreover, as we were saying before, he grows worse from having power: he becomes and is of necessity more jealous, more faithless, more unjust, more friendless, more impious, than he was at first; he is the purveyor and cherisher of every sort of vice, and the consequence is that he is supremely miserable, and that he makes everybody else as miserable as himself. No man of any sense will dispute your words.

Οὐκοῦν͵ ἦν δ΄ ἐγώ͵ ὦ φίλε Γλαύκων͵ παντελῶς τὸ πάθος ἄθλιον͵ καὶ τοῦ ὑπὸ σοῦ κριθέντος χαλεπώτατα ζῆν χαλεπώτερον ἔτι ζῇ ὁ τυραννῶν; Κομιδῇ γ΄͵ ἔφη. Ἔστιν ἄρα τῇ ἀληθείᾳ͵ κἂν εἰ μή τῳ δοκεῖ͵ ὁ τῷ ὄντι τύραννος τῷ ὄντι δοῦλος τὰς μεγίστας θωπείας καὶ δουλείας καὶ κόλαξ τῶν πονηροτάτων͵ καὶ τὰς ἐπιθυμίας οὐδ΄ ὁπωστιοῦν ἀποπιμπλάς͵ ἀλλὰ πλείστων ἐπιδεέστατος καὶ πένης τῇ ἀληθείᾳ φαίνεται͵ ἐάν τις ὅλην ψυχὴν ἐπίστηται θεάσασθαι͵ καὶ φόβου γέμων διὰ παντὸς τοῦ βίου͵ σφαδᾳσμῶν τε καὶ ὀδυνῶν πλήρης͵ εἴπερ τῇ τῆς πόλεως διαθέσει ἧς ἄρχει ἔοικεν. ἔοικεν δέ· ἦ γάρ; Καὶ μάλα͵ ἔφη. Οὐκοῦν καὶ πρὸς τούτοις ἔτι ἀποδώσομεν τῷ ἀνδρὶ καὶ ἃ τὸ πρότερον εἴπομεν͵ ὅτι ἀνάγκη καὶ εἶναι καὶ ἔτι μᾶλλον γίγνεσθαι αὐτῷ ἢ πρότερον διὰ τὴν ἀρχὴν φθονερῷ͵ ἀπίστῳ͵ ἀδίκῳ͵ ἀφίλῳ͵ ἀνοσίῳ καὶ πάσης κακίας πανδοκεῖ τε καὶ τροφεῖ͵ καὶ ἐξ ἁπάντων τούτων μάλιστα μὲν αὐτῷ δυστυχεῖ εἶναι͵ ἔπειτα δὲ καὶ τοὺς πλησίον αὑτῷ τοιούτους ἀπεργάζεσθαι. Οὐδείς σοι͵ ἔφη͵ τῶν νοῦν ἐχόντων ἀντερεῖ.