Death is not the greatest evil

Neither I nor any other man should, on trial or in war, contrive to avoid death at any cost. Indeed it is often obvious in battle that one could escape death by throwing away one’s weapons and by turning to supplicate one’s pursuers, and there are many ways to avoid death in every kind of danger if one will venture to do or say anything to avoid it. It is not difficult to avoid death, gentleman; it is much more difficult to avoid wickedness, for it runs faster than death.

Plato, Apology, 39.

Published in: John Cooper, ed. Plato: Complete Works (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1997), 34.

Filled under Plato.

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