 Bertrand Russell Quotes 366 |
There has been a tendency to think that everything that Xenophon says [about Socrates] must be true, because he had not the wits to think of anything untrue. This is a very invalid line of argument. A stupid man's report of what a clever man says is never accurate because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand. I would rather be reported by my bitterest enemy among philosophers than by a friend innocent of philosophy.
Source: A History of Western Philoophy, 1945, chapter 11: Socrates
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