The Apology

"The Apology of Plato is not the report of what Socrates said, but an elaborate composition, quite as much so in fact as one of the Dialogues."

"On the whole we arrive at the conclusion that the 'Apology' is true to the character of Socrates, but we cannot show that any single sentence in it was actually spoken by him. It breathes the spirit of Socrates, but has been cast anew in the mould of Plato."

"They almost made me forget who I was—so persuasively did they speak; and yet they have hardly uttered a word of truth."

"From me you shall hear the whole truth: not, however, delivered after their manner in a set oration duly ornamented with words and phrases."

"I am more afraid of them than of Anytus and his associates, who are dangerous, too, in their own way. But far more dangerous are the others, who began when you were children, and took possession of your minds with their falsehoods."

"Hardest of all, I do not know and cannot tell the names of my accusers; unless in the chance case of a Comic poet. All who from envy and malice have persuaded you — some of them having first convinced themselves — all this class of men are most difficult to deal with."

"I reflected that if I could only find a man wiser than myself, then I might go to the god with a refutation in my hand. I should say to him, 'Here is a man who is wiser than I am; but you said that I was the wisest.'"

"I do not suppose that either of us knows anything really beautiful and good, but I am better off than he is — for he knows nothing, and thinks that he knows; I neither know nor think that I know."

"I was conscious that I knew nothing at all, as I may say, and I was sure that they knew many fine things; and here I was not mistaken, for they did know many things of which I was ignorant."

"Because they were good workmen they thought that they also knew all sorts of high matters, and this defect in them overshadowed their wisdom."

"Come hither, Meletus, and let me ask a question of you. You think a great deal about the improvement of youth? — Yes, I do. — Tell the judges, then, who is their improver; for you must know, as you have taken the pains to discover their corrupter."

"Meletus is a doer of evil, in that he pretends to be in earnest when he is only in jest, and is so eager to bring men to trial from a pretended zeal and interest about matters in which he really never had the smallest interest."