“The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being.”
Socrates · Socratic
knowledgeselfmeaning
Paraphrase or translation
Philosopher
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Socrates
c. 470–399 BCE · Socratic · Ancient
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Socrates was an Athenian, born around 470 BCE, who spent his maturity questioning his fellow citizens about virtue, and who was tried and executed in 399 on charges of impiety and corrupting the young. He wrote nothing. The words in his mouth are other men's words. Plato, his student, made him the speaker of most of the dialogues, and the portrait changes as Plato's own philosophy grows.
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Xenophon, a different student, wrote a plainer, more practical Socrates. A careful reader says 'Plato's Socrates' unless there is a reason not to. What is stable across the early Platonic dialogues is a method: ask for a definition, test it against cases, and expose the gap between a confident claim and the speaker's ability to explain it.
He claimed a negative wisdom, that he did not think he knew what he did not know, and he tied that practice to a divine sign and to the oracle at Delphi. The Apology, Crito, and Phaedo are Plato's account of the trial, the refusal to escape, and the death. They are literature with a historical core, not a transcript. Later schools, Stoics and Sceptics among them, all claimed him.
Start here
Plato's Apology, especially 20e–23b and 28d–30b.
You meet the oracle, the disavowal of wisdom, and the refusal to stop, with the trial in view and Plato's hand visible.
Quotations
“I am wiser than this man; it is likely that neither of us knows anything worthwhile, but he thinks he knows something when he does not, whereas when I do not know, neither do I think I know.”
Socrates · Socratic
knowledgeself
Paraphrase or translation
“To fear death is to think oneself wise when one is not: to think one knows what one does not know.”
Socrates · Socratic
knowledgedeath
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“I go about persuading you, young and old, not to care for your bodies or your money as strongly as for the best possible state of your soul.”
Socrates · Socratic
ethicsself
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“A good person should look to nothing other than whether what they do is right or wrong.”
Socrates · Socratic
ethicsvirtue
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“The god attached me to the city as a gadfly to a large, well-bred but sluggish horse.”
Socrates · Socratic
societyethics
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“One ought never to return a wrong, or do evil to any person, no matter what one has suffered.”
Socrates · Socratic
ethicsjustice
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“It is not living that matters most, but living well.”
Socrates · Socratic
ethicsmeaning
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“Nothing can harm a good person, either in life or after death.”
Socrates · Socratic
ethicsdeath
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“The god is wise, and human wisdom is worth little or nothing.”
Socrates · Socratic
knowledgeself
Paraphrase or translation
Key ideas
Examined life
A human life gets its worth from testing how one lives, not from lasting or succeeding unexamined.
Knowing that you do not know
His advantage, as Plato tells it, is being less deceived than the experts about the size of his own knowledge.
Virtue and the soul
He urges Athenians to care more for the state of the soul than for body, money, or reputation.
No return of wrong
In the Crito he holds that one must not do wrong in return, even after suffering wrong.
Major works
None (d. 399 BCE)
Socrates wrote no book; the Apology, Crito, and Phaedo are Plato's dialogues about the trial and death.
Influences
- Athenian public argument, including the sophists he questioned
Influenced
Common misreadings
- He did not write 'I know that I know nothing'; that proverb shortens a speech in Plato's Apology.
- The philosopher-king, the forms, and the cave are Plato's constructions, not things Socrates is known to have taught.
Famous lines Socrates never said
None of the lines this library files for Socrates is marked Questionable or Misattributed. That is only a fact about these cards. It is not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.
FAQ
What is the best book to start with?
Plato's Apology, especially 20e–23b and 28d–30b. You meet the oracle, the disavowal of wisdom, and the refusal to stop, with the trial in view and Plato's hand visible.
What is the most famous quote?
This library does not measure fame, and it does not rank lines by how often they are shared. The first line it files for Socrates that is not marked Questionable or Misattributed is “The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being.” (Plato, Apology 38a, Paraphrase or translation).
What is the most misquoted line?
None of the lines this library files for Socrates is marked Misattributed or Questionable. That is a fact about these cards, not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.
What is one key idea, in a sentence?
Examined life: A human life gets its worth from testing how one lives, not from lasting or succeeding unexamined.