Crito
1969
One of the most consequential conversations in Western thought takes place in a prison cell. Socrates, convicted on false charges and awaiting execution, is visited by his wealthy friend Crito, who has arranged an escape. What follows is a meticulous philosophical examination of whether escaping an unjust punishment is itself just. Through Socratic questioning, Socrates dismantles every argument for flight: not because he welcomes death, but because he believes that wrongdoing can never be answered with wrongdoing, and that by living in Athens he entered into an unspoken covenant with its laws. The dialogue presents no dramatic flourishes, only the relentless machinery of reason applied to the most intimate of stakes: a man's choice between life and principle. Nearly twenty-four centuries later, Crito remains the foundational text for anyone grappling with the tension between individual conscience and civic obligation, between what is legal and what is right.
Editions
X-Ray
“for the unexamined life is not worth living.””
— Plato
“for the best possible state of your soul, as I say to you: Wealth does not bring about excellence, but excellence makes wealth and everything else good for men, both individually and collectively.””
— Plato
“the most important thing is not life, but the good life.””
— Plato
“Men of Athens, I honor and I love you, but I will obey the god rather than you and as long as I draw breath and am able, I shall not cease to practice philosophy, to exhort you and in my usual way to point out to any one of you whom I happen to meet.””
— Plato
“no man will survive who genuinely opposes you or any other crowd and prevents the occurrence of many unjust and illegal happenings in the city. A man who really fights for justice must lead a private, not a public, life if he is to survive for even a short time””
— Plato
“I am speaking like a book, but I believe that what I am saying is true.””
— Plato
“The next thing I want to do is to make a prophecy to you, the ones who voted against me; I’m now at that moment when human beings are most prone to turn prophet, when they’re about to die. I tell you, you Athenians who have become my killers, that just as soon as I’m dead you’ll meet with a punishment that – Zeus knows – will be much harsher than the one you’ve meted out to me by putting me to death. You’ve acted as you have now because you think it’ll let you off being challenged for an account of your life; in fact, I tell you, you’ll find 39d the case quite the opposite. There’ll be more, not fewer, people challenging you – people that I was holding back, without your noticing it, and they’ll be all the harsher because they’re younger, and you’ll be crosser than you are now. If you think killing people will stop anyone reproaching you for not living correctly, you’re not thinking straight. Being””
— Plato
“if you think that a man who is any good at all should take into account the risk of life or death; he should look to this only in his action, whether what he does is right or wrong, whether he is acting life a good or a bad man.””
— Plato
“فلا ينبغي لأحد ان ينساق لرأي الناس إن كان مخالفا للعقل””
— Plato
