A quotation from Socrates

Quotation

To do injustice is more disgraceful than to suffer.
— Socrates

Philosophical Context

ClassicalSocratic

Socrates

c. 470 BCE – 399 BCE

He wrote nothing, but changed everything. Philosophy became a conversation.

Socrates walked barefoot through Athens, asking questions that made powerful people uncomfortable. He claimed to know nothing, which made him wiser than those who claimed to know everything. His method (relentless questioning, following the argument wherever it leads) became the foundation of Western philosophy. Athens executed him for it. He drank the hemlock calmly, still talking about the soul.

Worldview & Key Ideas:VirtueJusticeSkepticismReason
⚔️ Philosophical Clash & DebateClassical Greek Debate

Socrates vs. Protagoras

Objective Truth vs. Relativism: Is truth discovered through dialectic, or is man the measure of all things?

The collision between Socrates and Protagoras defined the struggle for the Western mind in 5th-century Athens. Protagoras, the prince of the Sophists, declared:…

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More Lines from Socrates

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Understanding This Quotation

What does Socrates mean by this quotation?

He wrote nothing, but changed everything. Philosophy became a conversation. Socrates walked barefoot through Athens, asking questions that made powerful people uncomfortable. He claimed to know nothing, which made him wiser than those who claimed to know everything. His method (relentless questi…

What was the context or school of thought behind this idea?

Socrates articulated this thought in Gorgias. A quarrel about rhetoric that turns into a quarrel about how to live. Socrates argues that persuasion without knowledge is flattery, that it is worse to do wrong than to suffer it, and that a man who …