apology   

something extravagant. For the word which I will speak is not mine. I
will refer you to a witness who is worthy of credit, and will tell you
about my wisdom - whether I have any, and of what sort - and that
witness shall be the god of Delphi. You must have known Chaerephon; he
was early a friend of mine, and also a friend of yours, for he shared
in the exile of the people, and returned with you. Well, Chaerephon,
as you know, was very impetuous in all his doings, and he went to
Delphi and boldly asked the oracle to tell him whether - as I was
saying, I must beg you not to interrupt - he asked the oracle to tell
him whether there was anyone wiser than I was, and the Pythian
prophetess answered that there was no man wiser. Chaerephon is dead
himself, but his brother, who is in court, will confirm the truth of
this story.
Why do I mention this? Because I am going to explain to you why I have
such an evil name. When I heard the answer, I said to myself, What can
the god mean? and what is the interpretation of this riddle? for I
know that I have no wisdom, small or great. What can he mean when he
says that I am the wisest of men? And yet he is a god and cannot lie;
that would be against his nature. After a long consideration, I at
last thought of a method of trying the question. 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." Accordingly I
went to one who had the reputation of wisdom, and observed to him -
his name I need not mention; he was a politician whom I selected for
examination - and the result was as follows: When I began to talk with
him, I could not help thinking that he was not really wise, although
he was thought wise by many, and wiser still by himself; and I went
and tried to explain to him that he thought himself wise, but was not
really wise; and the consequence was that he hated me, and his enmity
was shared by several who were present and heard me. So I left him,
saying to myself, as I went away: Well, although I do not suppose that
either of us knows anything really beautiful and good, 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. Then I went to another, who had
still higher philosophical pretensions, and my conclusion was exactly
the same. I made another enemy of him, and of many others besides him.
After this I went to one man after another, being not unconscious of
the enmity which I provoked, and I lamented and feared this: but
necessity was laid upon me - the word of God, I thought, ought to be
considered first. And I said to myself, Go I must to all who appear to
know, and find out the meaning of the oracle. And I swear to you,
Athenians, by the dog I swear! - for I must tell you the truth - the
result of my mission was just this: I found that the men most in
repute were all but the most foolish; and that some inferior men were
really wiser and better. I will tell you the tale of my wanderings and
of the "Herculean" labors, as I may call them, which I endured only to
find at last the oracle irrefutable. When I left the politicians, I
went to the poets; tragic, dithyrambic, and all sorts. And there, I
said to myself, you will be detected; now you will find out that you
are more ignorant than they are. Accordingly, I took them some of the
most elaborate passages in their own writings, and asked what was the
meaning of them - thinking that they would teach me something. Will
you believe me? I am almost ashamed to speak of this, but still I must
say that there is hardly a person present who would not have talked
better about their poetry than they did themselves. That showed me in
an instant that not by wisdom do poets write poetry, but by a sort of
genius and inspiration; they are like diviners or soothsayers who also
say many fine things, but do not understand the meaning of them. And
the poets appeared to me to be much in the same case; and I further
observed that upon the strength of their poetry they believed
themselves to be the wisest of men in other things in which they were
not wise. So I departed, conceiving myself to be superior to them for