[340e]
in so far as he is that which we entitle him never errs; so that, speaking
precisely, since you are such a stickler for precision,1 no craftsman errs. For it is when his knowledge abandons him that
he who goes wrong goes wrong—when he is not a craftsman. So that
no craftsman, wise man, or ruler makes a mistake then when he is a ruler,
though everybody would use the expression that the physician made a mistake
and the ruler erred. It is in this loose way of speaking, then, that you
must take the answer I gave you a little while ago. But the most precise
statement is that other, that the ruler
1 For the invidious associations of ἀκριβολογία(1) in money dealings, (2) in argument, cf. Aristotle Met. 995 a 11, Cratylus 415 A, Lysias vii. 12, Antiphon B 3, Demosthenes. xxiii. 148, Timon in Diogenes Laertius ii. 19.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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