Socrates, ought you not to be giving some thought to what defence you are going to make? That Socrates had at first replied, Why, do I not seem to you to have spent my whole life in preparing to defend myself? Then when he asked, How so? he had said, Because all my life I have been guiltless of wrong-doing; and that I consider the finest preparation for a defence.

Then when Hermogenes again asked, Do you not observe that the Athenian courts have often been carried away by an eloquent speech and have condemned innocent men to death, and often on the other hand the guilty have been acquitted either because their plea aroused compassion or because their speech was witty? Yes, indeed! he had answered; and I have tried twice already to meditate on my defence, but my divine sign interposes.