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Section 28

In truth, men of Athens, I do not think it requires a long defense to prove that I am not unjust according to Meletus's indictment. What has been said is sufficient. But as I said earlier, I have incurred much hatred among many people, and you know well that this is true. And this is what will convict me, if it does convict me: not Meletus, nor Anytus, but the prejudice and envy of the multitude, which has convicted many other good men, and will likely continue to do so. There is no danger that it will stop with me. Perhaps someone might say: "Are you not ashamed, Socrates, to have pursued an occupation that has now put you at risk of death?" I would answer him with a just reply: "You speak poorly, my friend, if you think a man of any worth at all ought to calculate the risk of living or dying, and not consider only this: whether the things he does are just or unjust, the deeds of a good man or a bad one. According to your reasoning, the demigods who died at Troy would be worthless, especially the son of Thetis (Achilles). He despised danger so much compared to enduring shame that when his mother, a goddess, saw him eager to kill Hector, she spoke to him—I think it went something like this: 'My son, if you avenge the murder of your comrade Patroclus and kill Hector, you yourself will die, for your doom is ready straightaway after Hector.' Hearing this, he belittled death and danger. Fearing far more to live as a coward and not avenge his friends, he said, 'May I die straightaway, after inflicting justice on the wrongdoer, so that I may not remain here by the curved ships, an object of ridicule, a burden on the earth.' Do you think he gave a thought to death or danger?" This is the truth, men of Athens: wherever a man places himself, believing it is the best, or wherever he is placed by a commander, there he must stay and face danger, taking no account of death or anything else before shame. For me to do otherwise would be terrible indeed. When the commanders you elected to command me stationed me at Potidaea, Amphipolis, and Delium, I remained where they posted me and faced the risk of death like anyone else. So if the god stationed me—as I believed and understood—with the command that I must live a life of philosophy, examining myself and others, it would be a terrible thing if I were to abandon my post because of the fear of death or anything else.