The Meditating Philosopher | Five Great Quotes about Socrates, The Monstrous Sage of the Athenians @TheMeditatingPhilosopher | Uploaded January 2024 | Updated October 2024, 1 day ago.
~ Rest in Peace, Our Beloved Socrates ~
From near the end of the Phaedo (114c-115a):
"Those who are deemed to have lived an extremely pious life are freed and released from the regions of the earth as from a prison; they make their way up to a pure dwelling place and live on the surface of the earth.
Those who have purified themselves sufficiently by philosophy live in the future altogether without a body; they make their way to even more beautiful dwelling places which it is hard to describe clearly, nor do we now have the time to do so.
Because of the things we have enunciated, Simmias, one must make every effort to share in virtue and wisdom in one’s life, for the reward is beautiful and the hope is great.
No sensible man would insist that these things are as I have described them, but I think it is fitting for a man to risk the belief—for the risk is a noble one—that this, or something like this, is true about our souls and their dwelling places, since the soul is evidently immortal, and a man should repeat this to himself as if it were an incantation, which is why I have been prolonging my tale.
That is the reason why a man should be of good cheer about his own soul, if during life he has ignored the pleasures of the body and its ornamentation as of no concern to him and doing him more harm than good, but has seriously concerned himself with the pleasures of learning, and adorned his soul not with alien but with its own ornaments, namely, moderation, righteousness, courage, freedom and truth, and in that state awaits his journey to the underworld.
Now you, Simmias, Cebes and the rest of you, Socrates continued, will each take that journey at some other time but my fated day calls me now, as a tragic character might say, and it is about time for me to have my bath, for I think it better to have it before I drink the poison and save the women the trouble of washing the corpse."
(All five stories can be found Leo Rosten's "Infinite Riches: Gems from a Lifetime of Reading".)
If you have a favorite moment about the life of Socrates or how philosophy touched you, share it below! In philia!
Timeline
-------------
00:00 Peaceful Introduction
00:14 "Phaedo" by Plato, student of Socrates
00:53 "About Him" ~ Anon.
02:31 Cicero on Socrates
2:39 Eupolis on Socrates
2:52 Xenophon, author of the Anabasis, student of Socrates, on Socrates
~ Rest in Peace, Our Beloved Socrates ~
From near the end of the Phaedo (114c-115a):
"Those who are deemed to have lived an extremely pious life are freed and released from the regions of the earth as from a prison; they make their way up to a pure dwelling place and live on the surface of the earth.
Those who have purified themselves sufficiently by philosophy live in the future altogether without a body; they make their way to even more beautiful dwelling places which it is hard to describe clearly, nor do we now have the time to do so.
Because of the things we have enunciated, Simmias, one must make every effort to share in virtue and wisdom in one’s life, for the reward is beautiful and the hope is great.
No sensible man would insist that these things are as I have described them, but I think it is fitting for a man to risk the belief—for the risk is a noble one—that this, or something like this, is true about our souls and their dwelling places, since the soul is evidently immortal, and a man should repeat this to himself as if it were an incantation, which is why I have been prolonging my tale.
That is the reason why a man should be of good cheer about his own soul, if during life he has ignored the pleasures of the body and its ornamentation as of no concern to him and doing him more harm than good, but has seriously concerned himself with the pleasures of learning, and adorned his soul not with alien but with its own ornaments, namely, moderation, righteousness, courage, freedom and truth, and in that state awaits his journey to the underworld.
Now you, Simmias, Cebes and the rest of you, Socrates continued, will each take that journey at some other time but my fated day calls me now, as a tragic character might say, and it is about time for me to have my bath, for I think it better to have it before I drink the poison and save the women the trouble of washing the corpse."
(All five stories can be found Leo Rosten's "Infinite Riches: Gems from a Lifetime of Reading".)
If you have a favorite moment about the life of Socrates or how philosophy touched you, share it below! In philia!
Timeline
-------------
00:00 Peaceful Introduction
00:14 "Phaedo" by Plato, student of Socrates
00:53 "About Him" ~ Anon.
02:31 Cicero on Socrates
2:39 Eupolis on Socrates
2:52 Xenophon, author of the Anabasis, student of Socrates, on Socrates
