To Those Who Condemned Him

The jury has now voted for death. Socrates speaks to the room in two separate speeches, one to those who voted against him, one to those who voted for him. Each speech is completely different in tone.

Now that the vote is in, I want to say something true to both groups in this room.

To those of you who voted for my death: you made a mistake. Not necessarily a legal one. You had the power to do this. It was a moral mistake.

You condemned me not because I was actually guilty, but because you were uncomfortable. You wanted the questions to stop. You thought that if you killed the person asking the questions, the questions would go away.

They will not.

Other people will come. They will be younger than I am. They will be less patient and less polite. I have spent my career keeping things civil, giving everyone a fair chance to respond. The people who come after me will not have my manner. You will find them more difficult. You will have brought it on yourselves.

The only way to stop being questioned is to live a life that holds up to questions. Silencing me is not a solution. It is avoiding the real problem.

I want to be clear about one more thing: I am not angry with you. You have not actually harmed me. You may have ended my life, but that is not the same as harming me. A person of bad character cannot truly harm a person of good character, not in any way that lasts. By judging me unjustly, you have harmed yourselves. That is the greater loss.