# What did Socrates REALLY say?\* **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 7, 2004, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-socrates-really-say/243934 "2004-05-07T00:17:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Earthworm\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f07891/32.png) [@Earthworm\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthworm_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-socrates-really-say/243934/1 "2004-05-07T00:17:44Z")
So I was playing around with an online translator for grins. I started with: \*\*The unexamined life is not worth living." \*\* I got back “Η ανεξέταστη ζωή δεν αξίζει.” So I did the translation back to english and ended up with **The anexe’tasti life does not deserve.** Huh? The translator just gave me ανεξέταστη, it can’t translate it back?? What’s the deal? So I started looking around on the web to see what it should be, but as I don’t speak Greek I’m not having a lot of luck!! How did the quote appear in the original, and what is it’s literal translation?? I MUST KNOW!!! \*Or, if you’re feeling pedantic, “What did Plato REALLY write?” ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-socrates-really-say/243934/2 "2004-05-07T00:23:08Z")
“I could’ve had a V-8!” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-socrates-really-say/243934/3 "2004-05-07T01:11:55Z")
“Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.” ---
**Author:** ![Earthworm\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f07891/32.png) [@Earthworm\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthworm_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-socrates-really-say/243934/4 "2004-05-07T01:17:40Z")
Sillies. You’re thinking of those other immortal words of Socrates: **I drank what?!** ---
**Author:** ![BoringDad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ad7895/32.png) [@BoringDad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BoringDad)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-socrates-really-say/243934/5 "2004-05-07T02:12:29Z")
> [@Beelzebubba](#): > > Sillies. > > You’re thinking of those other immortal words of Socrates: > > **I drank what?!** “It’s always ‘Socrates, what is truth?’, ‘Socrates, what is justice?’. But did anyone ever say ‘Socrates, Hemlock is poisonous?’ NoooOOOOooooo!” ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-socrates-really-say/243934/6 "2004-05-07T02:16:35Z")
> [@BoringDad](#): > > “It’s always ‘Socrates, what is truth?’, ‘Socrates, what is justice?’. But did anyone ever say ‘Socrates, Hemlock is poisonous?’ NoooOOOOooooo!” Steve Martin, but for a really big trivia bonus and a no-expenses paid trip for 17 to Cuernavaca, WHO played Plato [who hands him the hemlock] in that same sketch? ---
**Author:** ![Dragwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dragwyr/32/2855_2.png) [@Dragwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragwyr)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-socrates-really-say/243934/7 "2004-05-07T02:40:38Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Steve Martin, but for a really big trivia bonus and a no-expenses paid trip for 17 to Cuernavaca, WHO played Plato [who hands him the hemlock] in that same sketch? That would be Werner Klemperer. Ok, I cheated… the IMDB is my friend 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-socrates-really-say/243934/8 "2004-05-07T02:42:18Z")
> [@Dragwyr](#): > > That would be Werner Klemperer. > Ok, I cheated… the IMDB is my friend 🙂 Truly, this man is the son of Cecil… ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-socrates-really-say/243934/9 "2004-05-07T03:03:15Z")
> [@](#): > > ὁ δὲ ἀνεξέταστος βίος οὐ βιωτὸς ἀνθρώπω I think. I know this is the relevant section of Plato’s Apology in [Greek](http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0169:div1=Apol.:section=38a) and [English](http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0170:div1=Apol.:section=38a). There’s a chance I have the wrong clause though. ---
**Author:** ![Dragwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dragwyr/32/2855_2.png) [@Dragwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragwyr)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-socrates-really-say/243934/10 "2004-05-07T12:09:00Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Truly, this man is the son of Cecil… Looks like I might have a new sig line too! 😉