Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Socrates notes that death and life diverge, leaving the judgment of which is better to the divine.
In plain terms
He sees life and death as separate paths, with God knowing which is superior.
What can you take from it?
Accept that some outcomes are beyond human judgment.

Where it applies

  • end‑of‑life decisions
  • spiritual contemplation
  • existential crisis

Putting it to work

  • reflect on mortality
  • seek spiritual guidance

Questions to consider

  • What criteria would you use to judge life vs. death?
  • How do you find peace with uncertainty?

Another view

It assumes a deity's authority without evidence.

More from Socrates

  1. Not I, but the city, teaches.

    Permalink to quote #13
  2. Crito, I owe a cock to Asclepius; will you remember to pay the debt?

    Permalink to quote #15
  3. So now, Athenian men, more than on my own behalf must I defend myself, as some may think, but on your behalf, so that you may not make a mistake concerning the…

    Permalink to quote #12

Related quotes

  1. What is man's life but love, love of self; Man is dust, dust as his passion, dust as the beloved. Death, it is your great act of piety for man - You take him t…

    Ghani KhanGhani Khan quote #5
  2. Loss and possession, Death and life are one. There falls no shadow where There shines no sun.

    Hilaire BellocHilaire Belloc quote #44
  3. 'I want to break out - to leave this cycle of infection and death. I want to be taken in love: so taken that you and I, and death, and life, will be gathered i…

    Thomas PynchonThomas Pynchon quote #51