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Socrates on the fear of death

set in 399 BCE, Athens. As Plato tells it.

Where and when

set in 399 BCEAthens

2,424 years ago

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Socrates

, AthensAs Plato tells it

In plain words, ours

Fearing death is pretending to know what you don't. Nobody knows death isn't the best thing of all, yet people fear it as the worst.

For to fear death, gentlemen, is nothing else than to think one is wise when one is not; for it is thinking one knows what one does not know. For no one knows whether death be not even the greatest of all blessings to man, but they fear it as if they knew that it is the greatest of evils.

Plato, Apology 29Translated by Harold North Fowler (1914)Read the full passage (Plato, Apology 29, opens scaife.perseus.org)

What was going on, our summary

As Plato tells it, Socrates is speaking at his own trial in Athens. He says that if he disobeyed the oracle out of fear of death, then he really could be charged with not believing in gods.

Checked claim by claim against: Socrates is tried, condemned and put to death, the passage around the quote.

Why it matters

About the event it belongs to: Socrates is tried, condemned and put to death

Plato's account of the trial and death inspired writers, artists and philosophers to return to it. Some saw the execution as showing the defects of democracy; others as a justifiable defence of a newly restored democracy.

Based on Wikipedia: Trial of Socrates

Plato's presentation of the trial and death of Socrates inspired writers, artists, and philosophers to revisit the matter.

For some, the execution of the man whom Plato called "the wisest and most just of all men" demonstrated the defects of democracy and of popular rule; for others, the Athenian actions were a justifiable defence of the recently re-established democracy.

Wikipedia, Trial of Socrates (opens en.wikipedia.org), as of 2026-10-01. Text CC BY-SA 4.0. Our line is checked against these sentences only.

Related moments

In time order, with this one in its place. Each says why it is here.

  1. c. 429 BCEabout 30 years earlier Oedipus demands to learn his birth Also about knowing and not knowing
  2. 423 BCE24 years earlier Strepsiades on the gnat's trumpet Also about knowing and not knowing
  3. c. 406 BCEabout 6.899999999999977 years earlier Euripides and Sophocles die Also about death
  4. 404 BCE5 years earlier The Thirty take power in Athens Same years
  5. 403 BCE4 years earlier Democracy returns to Athens, with an amnesty Same years
  6. 401 BCE2 years earlier The Chorus on not being born Also about death
  7. 399 BCESame year Socrates is tried, condemned and put to death The event behind itAlso in Athens
  8. set in 399 BCEThis momentSocrates on the fear of death
  9. by 399 BCEBy this year Aspasia on honest matchmaking Also in Athens
  10. set in 399 BCESame year The charge Meletus swore against Socrates Also in Athens
  11. set in 399 BCESame year Socrates calls himself the city's gadfly Same passage
  12. set in 399 BCESame year Socrates and the oracle at Delphi More from Socrates
  13. set in 399 BCESame year Socrates on what makes things beautiful More from Socrates
  14. set in 399 BCESame year Socrates at his trial, as Plato tells it Same passage
  15. set in 399 BCESame year Socrates on knowing that he does not know More from Socrates

Just before and after

The text around the quote, word for word from the same translation.

Show the passageHide the passage

It would be a terrible thing, and truly one might then justly hale me into court, on the charge that I do not believe that there are gods, since I disobey the oracle and fear death and think I am wise when I am not.

The quote: For to fear death, gentlemen, is nothing else than to think one is wise when one is not; for it is thinking one knows what one does not know. For no one knows whether death be not even the greatest of all blessings to man, but they fear it as if they knew that it is the greatest of evils.

And is not this the most reprehensible form of ignorance, that of thinking one knows what one does not know? Perhaps, gentlemen, in this matter also I differ from other men in this way, and if I were to say that I am wiser in anything, it would be in this, that not knowing very much about the other world, I do not think I know. But I do know that it is evil and disgraceful to do wrong and to disobey him who is better than I, whether he be god or man. So I shall never fear or avoid those things concerning which I do not know whether they are good or bad rather than those which I know are bad.

Plato, Apology 29–29bTranslated by Harold North Fowler (1914)Read the full passage (opens scaife.perseus.org)

When, and whose words

Date
set in 399 BCE. Spoken at the trial of Socrates in 399 BCE; Plato wrote the Apology some years later.
Whose words
As Plato tells it.
How this post was checked
  • The plain-words line was read against the quote alone by a second, independent pass, which found it adds no claim the quote does not make (2026-10-03).
  • Each claim in the summary was checked by an independent pass against only the material it cites.
  • The quote itself is checked by the build: word for word, once, at the cited section of the stored translation.

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