The Importance of Righteousness In Plato’s Apology, Socrates defends himself against the accusation of corrupting the youth through his teachings. Being found guilty and condemned to death, Socrates believes that he has never wronged anyone and is unwilling to do or say anything to escape death. He encourages the people of Athens to realize that it is more important to be righteous than to fear death. Convinced that he has “never intentionally wronged anyone” through his practice and teachings of philosophy, Socrates is reluctant to propose an alternate form of punishment to escape death (129). In conviction of his own moral righteousness, he argues to the court, “as I am convinced that I never wronged another, I will assuredly not wrong myself” (132-134). Even though Socrates believes he does not deserve the punishment of death, he is not willing to “propose a penalty which would certainly be an evil” (136). By accepting the alternate penalty of…show more content… He directly addresses those who have condemned him to death and explains to them that he knows he was convicted not because of his lack of words, but because he had not the “boldness or impudence or inclination” to address the court as they would have liked him to do, “weeping and wailing and lamenting” (158-159). Socrates does not regret his form of defense for he knows, as a man of worth, he was truthful to himself. He further explains to the court that he would rather die, having spoken in his manner, than live telling the court what they wanted to hear (163). Socrates believes that it is easy to avoid death if one is willing to say or do anything. However, he fears the moral consequence of unrighteousness more than he fears death. For that reason, Socrates is willing to take the punishment of death because he knows that no harm can come to a man of good