The Dialogues of Plato: Apology
I know that they almost made me forget who I was –
so persuasively did they speak; and yet they have hardly uttered a word of truth.
PLATO: Apology, Great Books Vol. 7, p.
200
As little foundation is there for the report that I
am a teacher, and take money; this accusation has no more truth in it than the
other, Although, if a man were really able to instruct mankind, to receive
money for giving instruction would, in my opinion, be an honour to him.
PLATO: Apology, Great Books Vol. 7, p.
201
I am
better off than he is, for he knows nothing, and thinks that he knows; I
neither know nor think that I know. In this latter particular, then, I seem to
have slightly the advantage of him.
PLATO: Apology, Great Books Vol. 7, p. 202
There you are mistake: 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 – acting the part
of a good man or of a bad.
PLATO: Apology, Great Books Vol. 7, p.
205
Men of Athens I honour and love you; but I shall
obey God rather than you, and while I have life and strength I shall never
cease from the practice and teaching of philosophy, exhorting any one whom I
meet and saying to him after my manner: You, my friend,- a citizen of the great
and mighty and wise city of Athens, - are you not ashamed of heaping up the
greatest amount of money and honour and reputation, and caring so little about
wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul which you never
regard or heed at all?
PLATO: Apology, Great Books Vol. 7, p. 206
If you think that by killing men you can prevent
someone from censuring your evil lives, you are mistaken; that is not a way of
escape which is either possible or honourable; the easiest and the noblest way
is not to be disabling other, but to be improving yourselves.
PLATO: Apology, Great Books Vol. 7, p.
211
When my sons are grown up, I would ask you, O my
friend, to punish them; and I would have you trouble them, as I have troubled
you, if they seem to care about riches, or anything, more than about virtue; or
if they pretend to be something when they are really nothing. PLATO: Apology, Great Books Vol. 7, p. 212
The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our
ways – I to die, and you to live. Which is better God only knows.
PLATO: Apology, Great Books Vol. 7, p.
212
VOCABULARY
Gadfly, pg 207
1. fly that bites livestock: a fly that irritates
livestock by biting them and sucking their blood. Horseflies are a type of gadfly.
2 somebody annoying: somebody regarded as persistently annoying or irritating
