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Socrates on the unexamined life

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

Talking every day about how to be good, testing myself and others, is the best thing a person can do. A life without that isn't worth living.

…and if again I say that to talk every day about virtue and the other things about which you hear me talking and examining myself and others is the greatest good to man, and that the unexamined life is not worth living, you will believe me still less.

Plato, Apology 38aTranslated by Harold North Fowler (1914)Read the full passage (Plato, Apology 38a, opens scaife.perseus.org)

What was going on, our summary

As Plato tells it, Socrates is at his trial in 399 BCE, discussing what penalty he should face. He imagines someone asking why he cannot simply leave Athens and live quietly without talking. Next he offers to pay a small fine.

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. 420–413 BCEabout 18 years earlier Orestes on judging a man's worth Also about how to live well
  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. 399 BCESame year Socrates is tried, condemned and put to death The event behind itAlso in Athens
  7. set in 399 BCEThis momentSocrates on the unexamined life
  8. by 399 BCEBy this year Aspasia on honest matchmaking Also in Athens
  9. set in 399 BCESame year The charge Meletus swore against Socrates Also in Athens
  10. set in 399 BCESame year Socrates on what death might be Same passage
  11. set in 399 BCESame year Socrates and the oracle at Delphi More from Socrates
  12. set in 399 BCESame year Socrates on what makes things beautiful More from Socrates
  13. set in 399 BCESame year Socrates on knowing that he does not know More from Socrates
  14. c. 386 BCEabout 13 years later Aspasia's speech on wealth and cowardice Also about how to live well

Just before and after

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

Show the passageHide the passage

No, men of Athens, they certainly will not. A fine life I should lead if I went away at my time of life, wandering from city to city and always being driven out! For well I know that wherever I go, the young men will listen to my talk, as they do here; and if I drive them away, they will themselves persuade their elders to drive me out, and if I do not drive them away, their fathers and relatives will drive me out for their sakes.Perhaps someone might say, Socrates, can you not go away from us and live quietly, without talking? Now this is the hardest thing to make some of you believe. For if I say that such conduct would be disobedience to the god and that therefore I cannot keep quiet, you will think I am jesting and will not believe me;

The quote: and if again I say that to talk every day about virtue and the other things about which you hear me talking and examining myself and others is the greatest good to man, and that the unexamined life is not worth living, you will believe me still less.

This is as I say, gentlemen, but it is not easy to convince you. Besides, I am not accustomed to think that I deserve anything bad. If I had money, I would have proposed a fine, as large as I could pay; for that would have done me no harm. But as it is—I have no money, unless you are willing to impose a fine which I could pay. I might perhaps pay a mina of silver. So I propose that penalty; but Plato here, men of Athens, and Crito and Critobulus, and Aristobulus tell me to propose a fine of thirty minas, saying that they are sureties for it.

Plato, Apology 37d–38bTranslated 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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