Socrates
(470-399 BCE)

SOCRATES

"Socrates said he was not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world."

Plutrach
On Banishment

"Now it is time that we were going, I to die and you to live; but which one of us has the happiest prospect is unknown to anyone but God."

Socrates
after being sentenced to die for impiety,
introducing new gods, and corrupting the young.

The coldness was spreading about as far as his waist when Socrates uncovered his face - for he had covered it up - and said (they were his last words): 'Crito, we ought to offer a cock to Ascelpius.* See to it, and don't forget.'

Plato
Phaedo

"Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep!
He hath awaken from the dream of life!"

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Adonais

* Ascelpius was the god of healing. The cock is either offered up to this god by sufferers who wish to wake up the next day relieved of some pain or sickness or by those already cured as a thanks-offering. In either case Socrates implies - with a characteristic mix of paradox, humor, and piety - that death is the cure for life.