Shocking Sayings

Foulest Casca, what are you doing?

I would rather be stabbed with a knife than to be betrayed by a friend.

Never was there a man more fitted by nature for the command of an army, and to inspire confidence in his soldiers, than Hannibal.

Aut vincere aut mori.

Enemies are not to be despised, however humble; and friends are not to be trusted, however great.

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 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 …

No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.

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.

For I was conscious that I knew practically nothing...

I am wiser than this man, for neither of us appears to know anything great and good; but he fancies he knows something, although he knows nothing; whereas I, as I do not know anything, so I do not fancy I do. In this trifling particular, then, I appe…

But this is not difficult, O Athenians! to escape death; but it is much more difficult to avoid depravity, for it runs swifter than death.

And now I depart, condemned by you to death; but they condemned by truth, as guilty of iniquity and injustice: and I abide my sentence, and so do they. These things, perhaps, ought so to be, and I think that they are for the best.

I shall obey God rather than you, and while I have life and strength I shall never cease to practice philosophy...

For I do believe that I have been sent by God to the city as a gadfly to a great and noble horse which is rather sluggish because of its size and needs to be stirred up by a gadfly.

For fear of death is indeed nothing other than to think oneself wise when one is not; for it is to think one knows what one does not know.

I do know, however, that it is wicked and shameful to do wrong, to disobey one's superior, be he god or man.

I have gained nothing by not living quietly, and I have not gained anything that is worthy of the name of gain.

Our discussions are not about just any topic, but about the way we ought to live.

Which of these two is better only God knows.