| The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996. |
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| NUMBER: | 54540 |
| QUOTATION: | If I tell you that I would be disobeying the god and on that account it is impossible for me to keep quiet, you won’t be persuaded by me, taking it that I am ironizing. And if I tell you that it is the greatest good for a human being to have discussions every day about virtue and the other things you hear me talking about, examining myself and others, and that the unexamined life is not livable for a human being, you will be even less persuaded. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Socrates (469–399 B.C.), Greek philosopher. quoted in Plato, Apology, sct. 38.
Speech to the court, while on trial on charges of impiety and corruption. Socrates was explaining why it would be impossible for him to go into exile and keep his opinions to himself. The paraphrase of his pronouncement, “The unexamined life is not worth living,” has become a “Socratic dictum.” |
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| | | The Columbia World of Quotations. Copyright © 1996 Columbia University Press. |
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