Apology by Plato Quotes

Context

So…Socrates never actually said this—at least it is nowhere to be found in Plato's dialogues. But in the Apology, Plato does have Socrates expressing essentially the same idea: "This man, on the one hand, believes that he knows something, while not knowing anything. On the other hand, I—equally ignorant—do not believe [that I know anything]."

Yeah, not quite as quotable. Maybe Plato needed a good editor?

In any case, this quote (and it's numerous variations) is a famous paradox of knowledge: knowing that we know nothing is in itself a type of knowledge…thus refuting that we know nothing in the first place.

Whew.

If we can find some kind of nugget in the quote, it might be that everything we know is uncertain. It's not that we literally know nothing—it's that we can't know what we know. It's kind of a scary idea, so we recommend not thinking about it too much.

Where you've heard it

If you were looking for someone more intelligent than you, and you went to Pythia, the Oracle of Delphi, and she asked you what you knew…then you might have heard it.

Oh, that didn't happen?

Then you must have just been perusing the Internet for collections of mistranslated and misinterpreted quotes. Because you've definitely heard it there.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

As far as quoting philosophers goes, this one isn't too bad. Yes, it's a bit paradoxical, but it's all about denying your certainty in your own knowledge.