Plato's CRITO: A Philosopher Prefers Prison Cell

Socrates unceasingly strove for beauty, truth, and perfection. Sentenced to death on a false charge, he refused to escape from the death cell, even when opportunity was offered.

Vol. 2, pp. 31-43 (starts on page 39 of the .pdf)

Download Link Here: https://www.myharvardclassics.com/categories/20120212

Please comment below on your own thoughts and feeling towards today's reading.

Here are some passages I found interesting:

"Cr. Why, indeed, Socrates, I myself would rather not have all this sleeplessness and sorrow. But I have been wondering at your peaceful slumbers, and that was the reason why I did not awaken you, because I wanted you to be out of pain. I have always thought you happy in the calmness of your temperament; but never did I see the like of the easy, cheerful way in which you bear this calamity. Soc. Why, Crito, when a man has reached my age he ought not to be repining at the prospect of death. Cr. And yet other old men find themselves in similar misfortunes, and age does not prevent them from repining."

"Soc. What! I suppose that the ship has come from Delos, on the arrival of which I am to die? Cr. No, the ship has not actually arrived, but she will probably be here to-day, as persons who have come from Sunium tell me that they have left her there; and therefore to-morrow, Socrates, will be the last day of your life."

"For if you die I shall not only lose a friend who can never be re- placed, but there is another evil: people who do not know you and me will believe that I might have saved you if I had been willing to give money, but that I did not care. Now, can there be a worse disgrace than this—that I should be thought to value money more than the life of a friend? For the many will not be persuaded that I wanted you to escape, and that you refused. Soc. But why, my dear Crito, should we care about the opinion of the many ? Good men, and they are the only persons who are worth considering, will think of these things truly as they happened. Cr. But do you see, Socrates, that the opinion of the many must be regarded, as is evident in your own case, because they can do the very greatest evil to anyone who has lost their good opinion ?"

Soc. And will life be worth having, if that higher part of man be depraved, which is improved by justice and deteriorated by injustice? Do we suppMse that principle, whatever it may be in man, which has to do with justice and injustice, to be inferior to the body? Cr. Certainly not. Soc. More honored, then? Cr. Far more honored. Soc. Then, my friend, we must not regard what the many say of us: but what he, the one man who has understanding of just and unjust, will say, and what the truth will say. And therefore you begin in error when you suggest that we should regard the opinion of the many about just and unjust, good and evil, honorable and dis- honorable.

Now you depart in innocence, a sufferer and not a doer of evil; a victim, not of the laws, but of men. But if you go forth, returning evil for evil, and injury for injury, breaking the covenants and agreements which you have made with us, and wronging those whom you ought least to wrong, that is to say, yourself, your friends, your country, and us, we shall be angry with you while you live, and our brethren, the laws in the world below, will receive you as an enemy; for they will know that you have done your best to destroy us. Listen, then, to us and not to Crito.

Leave me then, Crito, to fufil the will of God, and to follow whiter he leads