Euth. That is the natural inference.
Soc. It looks, does it not, Euthydemus, as if self-control were the best thing a man could have?
It does indeed, Socrates (he answered).
Soc. But now, Euthydemus, has it ever occurred to you to note one fact?
What fact? (he asked).
Soc. That, after all, incontinency is powerless to bring us to that realm of sweetness which some look upon (10) as her peculiar province; it is not incontinency but self-control alone which has the passport to highest pleasures.
(10) Or, "which we are apt to think of as."
In what way? (he asked). How so?
Why, this way (Socrates answered): since incontinency will not suffer us to resist hunger and thirst, or to hold out against sexual appetite, or want of sleep (which abstinences are the only channels to true pleasure in eating and drinking, to the joys of love, to sweet repose and blissful slumber won by those who will patiently abide and endure till each particular happiness is at the flood) (11)—it comes to this: by incontinency we are cut off from the full fruition of the more obvious and constantly recurring pleasures. (12) To self-control, which alone enables us to endure the pains aforesaid, alone belongs the power to give us any pleasure worth remembering in these common cases.
(11) Or, "at its season." Lit. "is as sweet as possible."
(12) Or, "from tasting to any extent worth speaking of the most
necessary and all-pervading sources of happiness."