apology   

the appearance of knowing the unknown; since no one knows whether
death, which they in their fear apprehend to be the greatest evil, may
not be the greatest good. Is there not here conceit of knowledge,
which is a disgraceful sort of ignorance? And this is the point in
which, as I think, I am superior to men in general, and in which I
might perhaps fancy myself wiser than other men, - that whereas I know
but little of the world below, I do not suppose that I know: but I do
know that injustice and disobedience to a better, whether God or man,
is evil and dishonorable, and I will never fear or avoid a possible
good rather than a certain evil. And therefore if you let me go now,
and reject the counsels of Anytus, who said that if I were not put to
death I ought not to have been prosecuted, and that if I escape now,
your sons will all be utterly ruined by listening to my words - if you
say to me, Socrates, this time we will not mind Anytus, and will let
you off, but upon one condition, that are to inquire and speculate in
this way any more, and that if you are caught doing this again you
shall die; - if this was the condition on which you let me go, I
should reply: Men of Athens, I honor 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 anyone
whom I meet after my manner, and convincing him, saying: O my friend,
why do you who are a citizen of the great and mighty and wise city of
Athens, care so much about laying up the greatest amount of money and
honor and reputation, and so little about wisdom and truth and the
greatest improvement of the soul, which you never regard or heed at
all? Are you not ashamed of this? And if the person with whom I am
arguing says: Yes, but I do care; I do not depart or let him go at
once; I interrogate and examine and cross-examine him, and if I think
that he has no virtue, but only says that he has, I reproach him with
undervaluing the greater, and overvaluing the less. And this I should
say to everyone whom I meet, young and old, citizen and alien, but
especially to the citizens, inasmuch as they are my brethren. For this
is the command of God, as I would have you know; and I believe that to
this day no greater good has ever happened in the state than my
service to the God. For I do nothing but go about persuading you all,
old and young alike, not to take thought for your persons and your
properties, but first and chiefly to care about the greatest
improvement of the soul. I tell you that virtue is not given by money,
but that from virtue come money and every other good of man, public as
well as private. This is my teaching, and if this is the doctrine
which corrupts the youth, my influence is ruinous indeed. But if
anyone says that this is not my teaching, he is speaking an untruth.
Wherefore, O men of Athens, I say to you, do as Anytus bids or not as
Anytus bids, and either acquit me or not; but whatever you do, know
that I shall never alter my ways, not even if I have to die many
times.
Men of Athens, do not interrupt, but hear me; there was an agreement
between us that you should hear me out. And I think that what I am
going to say will do you good: for I have something more to say, at
which you may be inclined to cry out; but I beg that you will not do
this. I would have you know that, if you kill such a one as I am, you
will injure yourselves more than you will injure me. Meletus and
Anytus will not injure me: they cannot; for it is not in the nature of
things that a bad man should injure a better than himself. I do not
deny that he may, perhaps, kill him, or drive him into exile, or
deprive him of civil rights; and he may imagine, and others may
imagine, that he is doing him a great injury: but in that I do not
agree with him; for the evil of doing as Anytus is doing - of unjustly
taking away another man's life - is greater far. And now, Athenians, I
am not going to argue for my own sake, as you may think, but for
yours, that you may not sin against the God, or lightly reject his
boon by condemning me. For if you kill me you will not easily find
another like me, who, if I may use such a ludicrous figure of speech,
am a sort of gadfly, given to the state by the God; and the state is