quote · Source-linked selection
the unexamined life is not worth living
the unexamined life is not worth living
Historical period not yet established
Editorial context: Plato is the author of the surviving dialogue. Socrates is its speaker; this is not an independently preserved verbatim transcript of the historical trial.
Individually source-checked reading
Read the idea
The challenge is not to analyse every moment until action becomes impossible. It is to stop treating inherited beliefs, public approval or personal confidence as sufficient reasons. In this speech, examining oneself and others belongs to the work of living well. A useful reading asks whether your account of courage, success or justice survives a difficult counterexample. The line is a philosophical provocation about reflective living, not a measure of another person's worth and not a reason to dismiss an ordinary life.
A question worth asking
What belief are you defending most strongly, and what evidence or counterexample would genuinely make you revise it?
Agent-assisted editorial interpretation, separate from the quoted passage. Plato is the author of the surviving dialogue. Socrates is its speaker; this is not an independently preserved verbatim transcript of the historical trial.
Read the translation and source notes ↗Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Socrates
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Historical period not yet established
No sufficiently supported historical placement has been established. Import and download dates are not treated as composition dates. - Recorded source
- Plato, Apology
38a; Socrates explains why he will not abandon philosophical examination
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.