Plato's Apology

I just re-read the Apology, and I was struck this time by how much Socrates seems, not just to not care about death, but to actively desire to die. This struck me as strange at first, but then I realized the power that his death exerted in history: Socrates' death grounds the consciousness of the West in the ideal of Truth. Socrates could do nothing greater for philosophy than to die for it. Some quotes from the Apology: What Socrates imagines the oracle to mean when it declares Socrates the wisest of men: "This man among you, mortals, is wisest who, like Socrates, understands that his wisdom is worthless" (23b). "You are wrong sir, if you think that a man who is any good at all should take into account the risk of life or death; he should look to this only in his actions, whether what he does is right or wrong, whether he is acting like a good or a bad man" (28c). "No one knows whether death may not be the greatest of blessings for a man, yet men fear it as if they know that it is the greatest of evils" (29a). "A man who really fights for justice must lead a private, not a public, life if he is to survive for even a short time" (32a). "The Olympian victor makes you think yourself happy; I make you be happy" (36d-e). "The unexamined life is not worth living" (38a). "A good man cannot be harmed either in life or in death, and ... his affairs are not neglected by the gods" (41d).