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Perchance

Posted by ESC on September 12, 2003

In Reply to: "An unexamined life is not worth living" posted by Bemused on September 11, 2003

: : : : : : Does anyone know where this quote came from and who said it?

: : : : : Socrates (470-399 BC) said it.

: : : : I beg to differ. According to Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, by John Bartlett and Justin Kaplan, general editor (Little, Brown and Co., Boston, 2002):

: : : : The life which is unexamined is not worth living. "Apology." Plato (c. 428 - 348 B.C.)

: : : It is *quoted* in Plato's "Apology [of Socrates]."

: : : From "The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, 5th Ed" :

: : : Socrates 469-399 BC
: : : The unexamined life is not worth living.
: : : Plato [tr. Lane Cooper] _Apology_ 42a

: : Dueling quote books!!

: and what, perchance doth the ancient tongue intend to convey by said remark?

It intends to convey annoyance that Bartlett's wasn't more explicit.

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