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Section 22

After that I went to others in succession, realizing with sorrow and fear that I was becoming hated. Yet I thought it necessary to place the greatest importance on the word of the god. I had to go to all those reputed to know something, investigating what the oracle meant. And by the dog, men of Athens—for I must tell you the truth—this was roughly my experience: as I investigated according to the god's command, those with the highest reputations seemed to me to be the most deficient, while others who were considered inferior seemed to be superior men when it came to intelligence. I must display my wandering to you, like a man performing labors, only to finally prove the oracle irrefutable. After the politicians, I went to the poets—writers of tragedies, dithyrambs, and the others—expecting that there I would catch myself red-handed being more ignorant than they. Picking up the poems they seemed to have worked on the most, I asked them what they meant, so that I might learn something from them at the same time. I am ashamed to tell you the truth, gentlemen, but it must be told. Almost everyone present could have spoken better about the poems than the men who had composed them. So I soon realized about the poets too, that it was not by wisdom that they made what they made, but by some natural genius and inspiration, like seers and prophets; for they too say many fine things, but know nothing of what they say. The poets seemed to me to be in a similar state. And at the same time, I perceived that because of their poetry, they thought they were the wisest of men in other things as well, which they were not. So I left them, thinking that I was superior to them by the same margin as I was to the politicians. Finally, I went to the craftsmen. I was conscious that I knew practically nothing myself, but I knew that I would find them possessing knowledge of many fine things. And in this I was not deceived: they did know things I did not know, and in that way they were wiser than I. But, men of Athens, the good craftsmen seemed to me to suffer from the same flaw as the poets: because they performed their art well, each of them claimed to be the wisest in other, the most important matters—and this discord of theirs overshadowed that other wisdom. So I asked myself, on behalf of the oracle, whether I would prefer to be exactly as I am—neither wise in their wisdom nor ignorant in their ignorance—or to have both of what they have. And I answered myself and the oracle that it was to my advantage to be exactly as I am.