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Xenophon on how Socrates lived

c. 371–354 BCE, Athens. Xenophon's own words, remembering Socrates.

Where and when

c. 371–354 BCEAthens

about 2,387 years ago

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Xenophon

, AthensXenophon's own words, remembering Socrates

In plain words, ours

Socrates lived in public: gyms in the morning, the market before noon, then wherever the crowds were. Usually talking, and anyone could listen.

Moreover, Socrates lived ever in the open; for early in the morning he went to the public promenades and training-grounds; in the forenoon he was seen in the market; and the rest of the day he passed just where most people were to be met: he was generally talking, and anyone might listen.

Xenophon, Memorabilia 1.1.10Translated by E. C. Marchant (1923)Read the full passage (Xenophon, Memorabilia 1.1.10, opens scaife.perseus.org)

What was going on, our summary

Xenophon, writing years after Socrates was put to death, is describing how Socrates lived. He has just explained Socrates' view of which questions to take to the gods and which to work out by learning.

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. 399 BCEabout 37 years earlier Socrates is tried, condemned and put to death The event behind it
  2. c. 367 BCEabout 5 years earlier Aristotle, aged about seventeen, joins Plato's Academy Also in Athens
  3. c. 371–354 BCEThis momentXenophon on how Socrates lived
  4. c. 371–354 BCEDuring it Xenophon answers the charge against Socrates Same passageMore from Xenophon
  5. c. 371–354 BCEDuring it Xenophon on Socrates and appetite More from Xenophon
  6. c. 371–354 BCEDuring it Xenophon's verdict on Socrates More from Xenophon
  7. c. 360–348 BCEabout 8 years later Plato's Athenian Stranger on law over rulers Also in Athens
  8. c. 360–348 BCEabout 8 years later The Athenian Stranger on puppets of the gods Also in Athens

Just before and after

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

Show the passageHide the passage

If any man thinks that these matters are wholly within the grasp of the human mind and nothing in them is beyond our reason, that man, he said, is irrational. But it is no less irrational to seek the guidance of heaven in matters which men are permitted by the gods to decide for themselves by study: to ask, for instance, Is it better to get an experienced coachman to drive my carriage or a man without experience? Is it better to get an experienced seaman to steer my ship or a man without experience? So too with what we may know by reckoning, measurement or weighing. To put such questions to the gods seemed to his mind profane. In short, what the gods have granted us to do by help of learning, we must learn; what is hidden from mortals we should try to find out from the gods by divination: for to him that is in their grace the gods grant a sign.

The quote: Moreover, Socrates lived ever in the open; for early in the morning he went to the public promenades and training-grounds; in the forenoon he was seen in the market; and the rest of the day he passed just where most people were to be met: he was generally talking, and anyone might listen.

Yet none ever knew him to offend against piety and religion in deed or word. He did not even discuss that topic so favoured by other talkers, the Nature of the Universe: and avoided speculation on the so-called Cosmos of the Professors, how it works, and on the laws that govern the phenomena of the heavens: indeed he would argue that to trouble one’s mind with such problems is sheer folly.

Xenophon, Memorabilia 1.1.9–11Translated by E. C. Marchant (1923)Read the full passage (opens scaife.perseus.org)

When, and whose words

Date
c. 371–354 BCE. Written well after Socrates' death in 399 BCE; often dated c. 371 BCE or later, before Xenophon's death c. 354 BCE.
Whose words
Xenophon's own words, remembering Socrates.
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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