To fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise, without being wise: for it… — Socrates

To fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise, without being wise: for it is to think that we know what we do not know.

In the original Greek

τὸ γάρ τοι θάνατον δεδιέναι, ὦ ἄνδρες, οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἐστὶν ἢ δοκεῖν σοφὸν εἶναι μὴ ὄντα: δοκεῖν γὰρ εἰδέναι ἐστὶν ἃ οὐκ οἶδεν.

Quoted in Apology, by Plato · 399 BC
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Provenance
Current citation
Plato. "Apology." Plato: Euthyphro; Apology; Crito; Phaedo, translated by Christopher Emlyn-Jones and William Preddy. Harvard University Press, 2017.
Original citation
Plato. Ἀπολογία Σωκράτους [Apology of Socrates]. Speech of legal self-defence which Socrates spoke at his trial for impiety and corruption. 399 BC, Athens, Greece.

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