Socrates, Plato’s teacher, was accused of impiety and corrupting the Athenian youths, and had to defend himself in court against his accusers. He refused to beg for mercy, defended his way of life and his character with dignity, a tad of irony and defiance, and received a death sentence with tranquility and showed no trace of fear of death.
Quotes:
“The unexamined life is not worth living”
Envy and detraction of the world has been the death of many good men
“They are numerous and ambitious and energetic, and are drawn up in battle array and have persuasive tongues, they have filled your ears with their loud and inveterate calumnies.”
“I know only too well how many are the enmities which I have incurred, and this is what will be my destruction if I am destroyed;… the envy and detraction of the world, which has been the death of many good men, and will probably be the death of many more;”
Rather Die Having Done Good than Live with Evil
“A man who is good for anything ought not to calculate the chance of living or dying; he ought only to consider whether in doing anything he is doing right or wrong”
“For the fear of death is indeed the pretence of wisdom, and not real wisdom, being a pretence of knowing the unknown; and no one knows whether death, which men in their fear apprehend to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good. … but I do know that injustice and disobedience to a better, whether God or man, is evil and dishonourable, and I will never fear or avoid a possible good rather than a certain evil.”
“I would rather die having spoken after my manner, than speak in your manner and live. For neither in war nor yet at law ought I or any man to use every way of escaping death. … The difficulty, my friends, is not to avoid death, but to avoid unrighteousness;”
“Wherefore, O judges, be of good cheer about death, and know of a certainty, that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death. He and his are not neglected by the gods; nor has my own approaching end happened by mere chance. But I see clearly that the time had arrived when it was better for me to die and be released from trouble;”
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