Apology

Then I went to one man after another, being not unconscious of the enmity which I provoked, and I lamented and feared this: but necessity was laid upon me,—the word of God, I thought, ought to be considered first. And I said to myself, Go I

uite as much so in fact as one of the Dialogues

So in the Apology there is an ideal rather than a literal truth

and in the height of his triumph

For the speech breathes throughout a spirit of defianc

Anaxagoras the Clazomenian, which are full of them

yet I corrupt him, and intentionally, too—so you say, although neither I nor any other human being is ever likely to be convinced by you. But either I do not corrupt them, or I corrupt them unintentionally; and on either view of the case you lie. If my offence is unintentional, the law has no cognizance of unintentional offences: you ought to have taken me privately, and warned and admonished me; for if I had been better advised, I should have left off doing what I only did unintentionally—no doubt I should; but you would have nothing to say to me and refused to teach me. And now you bring me up in this court, which is a place not of instruction, but of punishment.

Evenus the Parian

May I succeed, if to succeed be for my good and yours, or likely to avail me in my cause!

they almost made me forget who I was—so persuasively did they speak; and yet they have hardly uttered a word of truth.